Ulster Business - January 2017

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Contents 6 News

69 Ones to Watch

106 Appointments

Keeping you up to date with latest goings on in the Northern Ireland economy

The entrepreneurs making it big and ready to take their businesses to the next level

Got a new job? Got some new colleagues?

Find all the movers here

16 Viscount Awards

87 Venture Capital

108 Events

The definitive business awards of the year kick off in London

We hear from John Dolan of Cardinal Capital on the private equity world

Of course you were out over the Christmas period, but are you pictured here?

23 Outlook for 2017

94 Business Breakfast

116 Technology

The best minds in the Northern Ireland economy offer their thoughts for the year ahead

It’s back to porridge in Clarendon Dock with Belfast Harbour’s Graeme Johnston

Adrian Weckler knows a thing or two about the latest gadgets

99 Motoring

119 Travel

He knows the racing line. It’s drivers’ driver Pat Burns with your next motor

Mongolia! Somewhere a little bit different to whet your holiday-planning appetite

41 Leaders in Business Profiles of the leaders making waves across the economy in 2017

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18 50

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

New year, new confidence

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elcome to the first 2017 edition of Ulster Business.

Many will be glad to see the back of 2016, a year which has been one of the tumultuous in political and economic history and which has changed our future relationship with the European Union and with the rest of the world.

Brexit and Trump – two issues which have such impact that one word for each is explanation enough – have turned the economic, and social norm on its head and made us all rethink how we are going to trade with our biggest export markets.

To borrow sporting parlance, the playing surface has changed but the goals remain the same and we need to figure out how to reorganise our formation to maximise our chances of winning.

With that in mind, we’re looking forward and in this issue have once again profile some of what we consider to be the business leaders who are driving the Northern Ireland economy forward.

the most exciting entrepreneurs who are at an earlier stage of their journey, but are no doubt heading for the Leaders in Business list in a few years’ time.

All have been hugely fascinating to interview and we hope that you, like us, are reinvigorated after reading about them and their journey in the world of business.

This group - and a host of other top-class entrepreneurs from all parts of Northern Ireland and from all sectors - solidify the view that no matter what the wider political world – be it the US, Europe or Stormont – throws at us, we have the right people to make sure the local economy ploughs ahead to success.

For now, enjoy the magazine and raise a glass to a prosperous year ahead for all of us in the Northern Ireland business world. ■ David Elliott

From energy generators to a delivery expert, a council chief to a personal development coach; we present an insight into the lives and businesses of some of the big hitters in the engine room of Northern Ireland.

And then we have our Ones to Watch profiles, packed with some of

Publisher Ulster Business c/o Independent News & Media Ltd Belfast Telegraph House 33 Clarendon Road, Clarendon Dock Belfast BT1 3BG Printer W&G Baird Greystone Press, Caulside Drive, Antrim BT41 2RS www.wgbaird.com

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JANUARY 2017

Editor David Elliott Manager Sonia Armstrong Deputy Manager Sylvie Brando Sales Executive Sarah-Ann Gamble

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A month in numbers 5.7 The percentage of unemployed people in Northern Ireland, according to the Labour Force Survey. That’s a 0.5% decrease on the same time last year.

33,600 The number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits, a fall of 5,600 over the year.

From left Cathal Geoghegan, Managing Director at Mount Charles, Junior Minister Megan Fearon MLA, First Minister Arlene Foster MLA and Trevor Annon, Founder and Chairman of Mount Charles.

0.9% The expected gross value added (GVA) growth rate for Northern Ireland in 2017, according to the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre in its latest set of forecasts.

4.7% The expected house price growth rate for Northern Ireland in 2017, according to the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre.

Mount Charles to create 1,000 jobs by 2020

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he managing director of one of Northern Ireland’s biggest outsourcing companies has said it will create at least 1,000 new jobs between now and 2020.

business support organisation had outgrown its previous leased premises on Shaftesbury Square, making the decision in December 2015 to purchase and drastically refurbish the building that was previously known as Maxol House.

Cathal Geoghegan said the target to grow headcount to 3,000 was a “conservative estimate” for the Mount Charles Group as he opened the firm’s new headquarters at Annon House on Belfast’s Ormeau Road.

First Minister Arlene Foster opened the building last month.

It chimes with the firm’s plan to grow revenue substantially in the next few years.

5.0% The expected house price growth rate for the UK as a whole in 2017, according to the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre.

3.2% The expected UK inflation rate for the UK in 2017, according to the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre.

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“Our revenues as of September 2016 totalled £31m and we have recently outlined our ambitious plans for the ‘Road to £50m’ whereby we aim to achieve revenues of that amount by 2020,” he said, adding the new headquarters kickstart a period of growth for the firm.

“Our vision is simple; to be both a business partner and employer of choice throughout Ireland and the UK. The launch of Annon House together with the dynamic senior team we’ve assembled over the past 12 months marks the beginning of a new era, and it’s one that we’re incredibly excited about.”

The 28-year old foodservice and outsourced

“Mount Charles is a huge Northern Ireland success story. The company’s strong position in what is a very competitive marketplace is indicative of how well run and innovative the business has become over the last three decades. With the opening of these new headquarters, Mount Charles is delivering a statement of intent, a vote of confidence in Northern Ireland, in its workforce and in the future of the business.

“I commend Mount Charles Chairman Trevor Annon and Managing Director Cathal Geoghegan on their leadership and vision in bringing this indigenous Northern Ireland company to this hugely significant milestone, and I wish the company every success as it continues to grow.”

The Mount Charles business spans catering, cleaning, vending, security and outside event food & beverage divisions.

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NEWS

Hotel plugs in new power

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lectric Ireland has announced that it has won the energy contract to power Ten Square Hotel in Belfast city centre.

Part of the Loughview Leisure Group, Ten Square Hotel has just completed a £5m capital investment programme to revamp and expand the hotel.

The new contract worth £100,000 will see Electric Ireland provide the Loughview Leisure Group with approximately 1,000,000kwh per annum and the opportunity to access smart technology.

Pictured outside the newly refurbished hotel is Chris Kearney, Group Finance Director of Loughview Leisure Group along with David Fusco, Customer Relationship Manager, Electric Ireland.

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Quotes of the month “We see a fundamental strategic weakness of the Northern Ireland economy and it is one which should be given priority in the next Programme for Government. If not we may simply continue to slip further and further behind in terms of comparative productivity, competitiveness and living standards.”

Dr Esmond Birnie, Senior Economist, Ulster University Economic Policy Centre, in a note pointing out that GVA per head in Northern Ireland is only 73%, a figure which is the second lowest of all UK regions and down in consecutive years since peaking at 83.6% in 2007.

“Growing our exports and expanding trade opportunities are central to making Northern Ireland a globally competitive economy. There are many similarities between Northern Ireland and Malta in terms of our economic size. While we already have an export relationship, I used this opportunity to maximise that and outline new opportunities.”

Economy Minister Simon Hamilton on his visit to Malta to explore trade opportunities.

“Northern Ireland is unique as the only region of the UK having a land border with the EU. IoD members in NI are extremely concerned on what the impact of Brexit will mean for the free movement of people and goods across this border. It is vitally important that the UK government takes on board our members’ concerns during the negotiating process and seeks to ensure that free movement is retained.”

Ian Sheppard, Chairman at Northern Ireland Institute of Directors, warns the island of Ireland will be ‘litmus test’ for successful Brexit.

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Chris Acheson, founder and CEO of CADshare, announces the investment with Lynsey Cunningham, Entrepreneurial Development Manager at Ulster Bank

Investment paves way for 10 new jobs at Belfast start-up

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Belfast startup is creating 10 new jobs after securing £200,000 investment.

CADshare, based at the Ulster Bank-powered Entrepreneurial Spark Hatchery in the city, will use the investment to grow the business’s global reach.

Its main product is a platform which allows manufacturers of heavy machinery to bring their aftermarket customer service online, making it faster, more accurate and more productive.

It was founded by mechanical engineer Chris Acheson who has been working with Northern Ireland-based manufacturing businesses to develop the product, which he now plans to launch fully to the market in the first half of 2017.

“Technology is opening up new opportunities to transform the aftermarket business, and CADshare provides a way to unlock new revenue streams and better service. It is a platform that offers significant benefits to manufacturers globally,” he said.

“I am delighted to secure the new investment, which will really help bring the vision for the business to reality.”

He said recruitment will start immediately.

The investment came from a number of sources including techstart NI, private investors based in Northern Ireland and the US, as well as support from Invest NI.

The firm is based at Entrepreneurial Spark, a business accelerator and growth hub for entrepreneurs.

It is part of a major international movement to encourage and support start-up and scale-up businesses.

“I am also very grateful to Entrepreneurial Spark for the mentoring and support, which has been invaluable in terms of really focusing our technology on its best application,” he said.

“I would strongly encourage other start-up businesses to take the opportunity to become Entrepreneurial Spark Chiclets.”

Entrepreneur Development Manager at Ulster Bank, Lynsey Cunningham welcomed the news, saying: “Chris will continue to benefit from the support of Entrepreneurial Spark and its vibrant ecosystem for the next nine months, and I am sure the business will go from strength-tostrength.”

Karen McCallion, Belfast Enabler at the Entrepreneurial Spark Hatchery, said Chris has impressed at the hatchery.

“Since joining the programme in February 2016, Chris has displayed a real #GoDo attitude. He's grabbed every opportunity the Entrepreneurial Spark programme has to offer and it's great to see all the hard work come to fruition.

“As we work to accelerate his business further, it's going to be an exciting year ahead."

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Pictured from left are Cllr Aileen Graham; Jackie Henry, senior partner at Deloitte; Suzanne Wylie, chief executive, Belfast City Council.

All eyes on MIPIM 2017

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lans for a delegation of local business leaders to market Belfast at an international property investment event in March 2017 were unveiled last month at a breakfast event in the former Belfast Telegraph building.

Guests were invited to register to be part of an anticipated delegation of over 50 business leaders - developers, banks, universities, architects, estate agents - from across the private and public sectors in Belfast that will attend MIPIM 2017.

An annual global property investment event that brings together the most influential global players from all international property sectors, MIPIM 2017 will take place on 14th-17th March in Cannes and is expected to attract around 2,000 exhibitors and 20,000 delegates from over 80 countries around the world.

Uplift in shopper numbers for Ards Shopping Centre

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rds Shopping Centre in Newtownards said it’s footfall is up 16% following the addition of JD Sports and TK Maxx.

Argento which doubled the size of its previous unit.

The centre, which is owned by Belfast Office Properties, welcomed the two major brands in September as part of a £7m redevelopment which includes an additional large retail unit and a cafe.

“It has been a superb year for Ards and everyone involved with the shopping centre. Our strategy to develop the existing offer has been met with high demand from major UK brands, who have come on board and had a direct impact on footfall.”

The increase in shopper numbers was based on the three months to November and went towards a 5% uplift for the centre in the years as a whole.

It has also signed B&M Bargains, Warren James, and an upsized store for

Paul Devlin of Belfast Office Properties welcomed the increase in visitors.

“Our ongoing investment means that the enhancements to Ards will continue into the new year and ensure that it remains the region’s strongest performing shopping destination. 2017 will be another key year for Ards.”

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Pictured are Ryan Kee, retail director at Lambert Smith Hampton, and John Jones, centre manager for The Kennedy Centre.

New arrival at Kennedy Centre creates 10 jobs

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he arrival of entertainment chain CeX has created 10 new jobs in a west Belfast shopping centre.

The global brand has set up shop in a 1,500 square foot unit in The Kennedy Centre, the last available unit on the ground floor of the retail scheme.

It buys, sells and exchanges a range of technology and entertainment products including mobile phones, video games, DVDs and Blu-ray movies, computers, digital electronics, TVs and monitors and music CDs. John Jones, centre manager for The Kennedy Centre, welcomed the new name.

“We have had a very successful year and our

tenants are all reporting year-on-year growth,” he said.

Lambert Smith Hampton acted on behalf of the landlord.

“We have a wide array of national retailers throughout the centre, including JD Sports, Boots, Peacocks, O'Neills sportswear and Argento as well as a diverse mix of food retailers such as Burger King, Subway, Costa and Greggs.

Ryan Kee, retail director at Lambert Smith Hampton, said the centre is proving a draw for retail names.

“The opening of CeX means that we are now fully let on the ground floor and all of our retailers are reporting growth.”

CeX was founded in London in 1992 and now has stores in the UK, Spain, USA, Ireland, India, Australia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Mexico and Poland.

“The Kennedy Centre continues to work hard to improve and attract new retailers and today’s announcement that CeX will open ahead of the Christmas rush is great news,” he said.

“This scheme is performing well and looking ahead to 2017 with optimism with several more deals approaching the final stages of negotiations. We look forward to being able to make similar announcements in the future.”

Woodland NI wins £2.4m worth of new business

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County Antrim which has worked on Batman’s film set has won £2.4m worth of business for its kitchen, bedroom and bathroom furniture.

Woodland NI - which has previously sold kitchens and wardrobes for a Croydon building used in Batman film The Dark Knight Rises – said the deals have been struck after a concerted effort to expand in the GB market.

One of the most recently completed projects is the Adagio ApartHotel in Edinburgh which Woodland furnished with kitchens and wardrobes for its 146 bedrooms in just 13 weeks.

The company was founded in 1987 by Brian McCloskey and has, in that

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time, supplied tailor-made kitchen, bedroom and bathroom cabinets to some of the largest multi-national retail houses and distribution companies.

Its contract clients include a number of top-end customers in the hotel, residential, and student accommodation sectors and Brian believes the company’s reputation has helped it win business “Our reputation for quality product and quality of installation on site has led to our growth and we are winning new business on the strength of what we have delivered. We aim to be a ‘supplier of choice’ for contractors in the high end-residential, hotel & student accommodation sectors.”

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IoD launches search for top directors

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he Institute of Directors has launched its annual search for Northern Ireland’s most successful directors at Riddel Hall in Belfast.

The IoD First Trust Bank Director of the Year Awards recognise the outstanding achievements and leadership of directors in Northern Ireland across 10 categories.

For the past two years, winners from the Northern Ireland awards have gone on to claim the title of overall UK Director of the Year at the finals held in London. Pictured from left is Brendan McGurgan, Managing Director of CDE Global who won the Overall Director of the Year title at the UK Finals this year is pictured with Ian Sheppard, Chairman of the IoD NI and Des Moore, Managing Director of First Trust Bank.

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Tech company creates 15 new jobs in Newry

Novosco opens new £1m offices in Titanic Quarter

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high-tech security company is creating 15 new jobs in Newry as part of an expansion across the island of Ireland woth £18m.

Netwatch, which provides video technology to monitor its customers’ assets, said the increase in headcount follows growing demand for its services locally.

In total it’s creating 85 jobs over the next 12 months across Northern Ireland and the Republic, a move which will bring total employment to 250.

Paddy Finnegan, European Sales Director of Netwatch welcomed the move.

“We are delighted to announce this expansion of our Newry base as a result of securing a number of high profile contracts from public utilities to blue chip organisations including Enva, Northern Ireland Electricity and Norbrook Laboratories since we launched here back in February.

Based in Carlow, Netwatch has offices in Newry, Cambridge, Boston and New York, and is targeting the Northern Ireland market.

“Our focus for Q4 of 2016 and into 2017 is to grow our Northern Ireland business by 30%; and to support that ambitious target we’re now actively recruiting talent in areas such as software and hardware engineering, marketing and sales.

“We’re a highly innovative company with technology at the heart of everything we do so throughout the recession we focused on research and development and expanding the business internationally.

“We see this £18m investment and employee expansion announcement as validation of that decision. It lays the ground work for the next two years of growth and development. There’s a lot of untapped potential in the US which we will now be able to fully take advantage of.”

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Economy Minister, Simon Hamilton, officially opens Novosco’s new world-class offices at Catalyst Inc (formerly the NI Science Park), today with Novosco Managing Director, Patrick McAliskey, and Sales Director, John Lennon.

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ne of Belfast’s fastest-growing IT companies has invested over £1m in new offices in the Titanic Quarter.

Novosco has just moved into the 11,000 square foot facility at Concourse 3 in Catalyst Inc (formerly the Northern Ireland Science Park), a building which doubles the firm’s space in the city.

The cloud provider employs 150 people in Belfast and at its offices in Dublin, Cork and Manchester, all servicing contracts across the UK and Ireland in the private, public and voluntary sectors.

Its new Belfast headquarter offices have a gym, library, a coffee dock and a virtual reality room for staff entertainment.

Novosco managing director, Patrick McAliskey, said he wants to attract the best people.

“We wanted to create a unique office environment to support our efforts to recruit and retain the very best people. We don’t think there are any other offices in Northern Ireland quite like those we have created and we feel that they will play a crucial role in the continuing growth of our business.”

Economy Minister Simon Hamilton MLA opened the new offices.

“Novosco is making a valuable contribution to growing Northern Ireland’s technology sector and the remarkable growth and development undertaken by the business in recent years highlights its confidence in our local talent base.

“Working closely with Invest Northern Ireland, Novosco has almost doubled its Belfast workforce in the last three years and implemented R&D and skills development activities to position itself competitively in the global marketplace. These new offices mark an exciting new chapter for Novosco and I wish the business continued success in the future.”

Founded in Belfast over 20 years ago, Novosco is a market-leading managed cloud provider, and one of the island of Ireland’s fastestgrowing tech companies. It recently acquired English specialist IT security solutions and managed services expert NetDef in a sevenfigure deal.

Novosco has been ranked in the Sunday Times Best UK Companies to Work for in each of the past four years.

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Kernel puts £1m behind Tyrone engineering firm

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he Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund has invested £1m in a Tyrone waste company.

Kernel Capital made the investment in Waste Systems, a firm which makes machinery used to separate waste into valuable component parts.

The money will be used to drive the firm’s growth across the world, particularly in Europe and North American.

The fund is designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises in Northern Ireland by accelerating their growth and is funded by Invest Ni and the European Regional Development Fund under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020.

Pictured from left are Allen Martin, Senior Investment Executive, Kernel Capital; Nishi Ward, CEO, Waste Systems; William McCulla, Director Corporate Finance, Invest NI and Andy Palmer, Customer Service Manager, Bank of Ireland UK.

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In association with

2017 Aer Lingus Viscount Awards cleared for takeoff Premier Awards recognise business excellence across Northern Ireland

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he ninth annual Aer Lingus Viscount Awards are officially open for entry across nine diverse categories.

“We are interested in the calibre of the achievement and not just the scale of the project, and we’re proud to recognise businesses of all sizes for their successes.

Held in association with Ulster Business, the

“These awards have become a highly respected barometer of excellence and one of the premier events in the annual business calendar, giving both finalists and winners alike a superb platform to showcase their achievements.

Viscount Awards aim to celebrate exceptional businesses and individuals that promote best practice and who have generated significant business success over the last year in areas including innovation, export, employee focus and overall growth.

Aer Lingus will once again fly the shortlisted companies to London to attend a gala awards luncheon on 24th May 2017 at the Institute of Directors’ palatial headquarters on Pall Mall, where the winners will be announced.

Andrea Hunter, Business Development Manager at Aer Lingus said: “We’ve widened the scope of the categories this year to encourage a really diverse range of companies to enter.

“Companies of all sizes should consider taking part, the only criteria is that they are best in class.

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“At Aer Lingus we understand that winning awards are a great way to acknowledge and market the companies that are forging ahead and inspiring change in their sectors.

operations in Belfast and we are delighted to be standing the test of time in the Northern Ireland market, and we will continue to strive to deliver the best possible experience for NI travelers,” she added.

The awards will be judged by a high profile and independent judging panel of media and industry experts including: Andrea Hunter, Aer Lingus; David Elliott, Ulster Business; Wendy Austin, BBC, Jeremy Fitch, Invest NI; Colin Walsh, Crescent Capital; Margaret Canning, Belfast Telegraph; Gary McDonald, Irish News; Richard Sherriff, News Letter, Alan Taylor, Arthur Cox and Roseann Kelly, Women in Business.

“Indeed, in the past year we have celebrated a number of our own awards, including ‘Best Airline out of Belfast City’ at the Northern Ireland Travel and Tourism Awards, ‘Best Short Haul Airline Europe’ and ‘Best Long Haul Airline Flying West’ at the Travel Media Awards and our prestigious 4-star rating from Skytrax, joining a select group of just 40 airlines worldwide that also boast a 4-Star guest experience.

So if your business has experienced a stellar year and you want to shout about your success and receive recognition for your business acumen, have a look for the category – or categories – that best suit you.

“This winter we celebrated nine years of

Good luck! ■

Entry forms and criteria can be found at viscountawards.ulsterbusiness.com and all entries must be submitted no later than 5pm on Friday 24th March.

Ulster Business editor David Elliott and Business Development Manager for Aer Lingus Andrea Hunter launch the 2017 Aer Lingus Viscount Awards in association with Ulster Business

2017 Categories BEST BUSINESS START-UP This award will recognise a young company that has displayed a strategic approach to business, who can demonstrate the successful implementation of that strategy and that has strong prospects for the future.

BEST SME This category recognises the SME that is deemed to have excelled in all functions of their business during in the last year. The winner of this award will be able to show significant commitment to producing and marketing a successful product or service.

BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR This award acknowledges the person who has achieved significant business success in the past 12 months, showing strong leadership skills and business acumen.

EMPLOYEE CHAMPION This will be awarded to the company that can best demonstrate how it supports its employees, making it a better place to work.

JANUARY 2017

EXPORTER OF THE YEAR This will be given to the company that best demonstrates how it has increased export sales, with a clear commitment to expanding their business outside of Northern Ireland.

FAST GROWTH BUSINESS This award is for a company that is profitable and growing fast. The winner will have achieved exceptional growth in areas such as sales, turnover and employee headcount in the last three years.

INNOVATION OF THE YEAR This award honours the company that can demonstrate the successful development of an innovative product, process or service, or a new way of working.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT The Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to an individual who, in the opinion of the judges, has demonstrated an unrivalled record of achievement in Northern Ireland for many years, contributing significantly to the local

economy, showing outstanding performance within OVERALL EXCELLENCE This award will honour the company that the judges feel have achieved outstanding success throughout all parts of their business in the last 12 months.

TIPS FOR AN AWARD-WINNING ENTRY: • Consider your strengths and achivements carefully before choosing a category • Putting together a strong entry takes time, don’t leave it until the 11th hour!

• Make sure to include proof/evidence of your achievements (facts/statistics/ testimonials) where possible • Keep it simple – layman’s terms, no jargon or unexplained acronyms • Stick to the criteria and ensure that what you’re writing is tailored to each criteria point

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Cross-border business leaders join together to call for Brexit focus

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usiness leaders from across the UK and the Republic have joined together to urge politicians on both sides of the border to do their utmost to maintain strong trading links between the two nations in Brexit negotiations.

The Institute of Directors in the UK and IoD Ireland – two separate organisations – said both Northern Ireland and the Republic are heavily reliant on cross-border trade and the government needs to keep their wellbeing front and centre in the upcoming talks.

The two organisations have released a report – The Irish Question – which surveyed their members and found that a failure to maintain an open border for both trade and the movement of people will impact economic growth.

One-in-ten IoD members in Northern Ireland and a quarter of IoD Ireland members have employees who commute across the border and the majority want to see the common travel area between the two countries maintained.

Ian Sheppard, Chairman at Northern Ireland Institute of Directors, said government must take on board its members’ concerns.

“Northern Ireland is unique as the only region of the UK having a land border with the EU. IoD members in Northern Ireland are extremely concerned on what the impact of Brexit will mean for the free movement of people and goods across this border.

“It is vitally important that the UK government takes on board our members’ concerns during the negotiating process and seeks to ensure that free movement is retained.”

The survey also revealed that over half of IoD members based in Northern Ireland said delays at the border would be negative for their business, while none think this would be a positive development.

Meanwhile, firms in Northern Irelandare have been at the sharp end of the pound’s fall against the euro since the EU referendum as although

some exporters are benefiting from a cheaper pound, two-thirds of said exchange rate volatility is having a negative effect on them.

And because of the need to do business in the Republic, the majority of IoD NI members think Brexit will make the red tape burden worse.

Seamus Nevin, Head of Employment and Skills Policy at the Dublin-based Institute of Directors, said the Westminster government has a big job on its hands.

“Leaving the EU will be probably the most cumbersome legislative task ever undertaken by a British Government. Because of the deep historical and economic ties, one of the knottiest issues of all is the UK’s future relationship with the Republic of Ireland.

“This will be the litmus test for Brexit. If the Government can overcome the many intricate and complicated difficulties Northern Ireland presents for Brexit, they will have gone a long way to ensuring the best possible outcome for the whole United Kingdom.”

The report also found: • Over £1bn in goods and services are exchanged between the Republic of Ireland and the UK every week.

• Trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is worth £2.2bn per year.

• 30,000 people cross the Northern IrelandIreland border every day. 14,800 persons habitually commute between Northern Ireland and the Republic for work or study • Brexit could hit television and movie productions such as Game of Thrones and Star Wars. The EU maintains protectionist exemptions from free trade agreements for certain sectors, including cultural industries.

This could create significant problems for the 250 cross-border movie, television and radio companies who are currently part of a thriving all-Ireland industry.

• Both the UK and Irish governments have said they plan to revert to the Common Travel Area (CTA). However this is not cut-and-dried as the EU seeks to prohibit third-party states from giving the citizens of one EU member state preferential treatment.

• With the exception of football, all sports are organised on an all-Ireland basis and have a single national representative team. If the above issues are not resolved athletes representing Ireland may require travel visas to represent their own country in sport. ■

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The new world of work – the rise of the contingent workforce Brian McAreavey, Managing Director of PwC Augment, on how it is serving resource hungry organisations across the world

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hat happens when a multinational faces a deluge of claims from irate consumers; or where the regulator tells a global bank to initiate an immediate review of customer data in 20 countries?

Until a couple of years ago, there was no clear answer. Some companies seconded permanent employees, others recruited contractors or promised unlimited overtime to in-house staff and, for many, stifling growth became the price of delivering compliance. Even the auditors to the biggest multinationals couldn’t provide the staff or the skills that were increasingly being demanded.

However, if you could harness the convergence of a capable and mobile workforce and synchronise this to the real-time demands of global business, that solution might look a lot like PwC Augment.

PwC Augment is a business unit that sits within PwC Northern Ireland to provide high quality resources to work on operational and execution roles in clients across the UK, Ireland and beyond.

If it was a new business, PwC Augment would be one of Northern Ireland’s fastestgrowing; and, measured by destination of sales, it would probably also qualify as one of our fastest-growing exporters. The real secret of PwC Augment is that it is transforming the way global organisations manage and deploy their labour.

We call it PwC Augment.

From a standing start just two years ago, PwC Augment now has over 200 staff, based in Belfast, responding to resource hungry organisations worldwide - organisations struggling to feed an inexorable demand for resources to support compliance activities, and companies striving to deliver diversification and internationalisation.

All these demand highly skilled resources with expertise in finance, regulation and technology and that’s why PwC Augment will continue to grow with a further 100 recruits expected in the next year.

The key to the PwC Augment model is that PwC Augment staff are employed, trained and resourced by PwC, but they typically work under the supervision of the client’s management team. PwC Augment staff can be based on the client site(s), can deliver outcomes remotely from PwC’s nearshore location in Belfast, or a combination of both.

PwC Augment often provides agile “surge resourcing” to deliver activities by a given deadline.

One common request is helping global banks with remediation activities like clearing a backlog of compliance cases by a target date, sometimes at the request of a regulator, or providing resources to support non business as usual activities such as transformation or divestiture programmes.

PwC Augment provides a distinctive offering

of high quality and cost effective resourcing as an alternative to clients engaging groups of contractors.

PwC Augment has worked on range of engagements for many leading Banking and Energy clients across the UK, Ireland and globally.

The rise of the contingent workforce The rapid growth of PwC Augment and the ease of acceptance of the staff augmentation model globally, says much about the change in workforce strategy. Until recently, the only way of acquiring skills was to employ people, and the only major distinction between employees was full time vs part time.

However as market conditions have become more dynamic, organisations face the need to be more flexible to respond as conditions quickly change, and look for other ways to secure access to talent that is otherwise difficult to source.

According to a 2015 report from supply specialist Ardent Partners, freelancers and independent contractors already make up about 32% of the US workforce and that number is expected to keep rising. Adding to the conundrum, an expert from the London Business School, speaking at the 2016 World Business Forum in Sydney, predicted that nine out of ten of people’s full-time colleagues may be gone in the next ten years. At the same time, businesses are resource hungry, with 72% of respondents to PwC’s 19th annual CEO Survey concerned about the

Brian McAreavey

availability of key skills, with 48% planning to hire in the next year.

So, as organisations seek to adopt an ondemand approach to resourcing in order to lower costs, expand market coverage, increase revenues and shorten response times, the potential of the contingent workforce has facilitated the emergence of PwC Augment.

What now?

PwC’s success in developing and deploying PwC Augment clearly demonstrates that the rise of contingent labour is turning the old employer-employee relationship on its head

and we are still only at the early stages of wholesale adoption of the model - but that will come and it will come fast. New players and niche specialists are emerging, while new technology is being developed to address workforce management and productivity, while traditional roles in human capital management are being redefined.

Our clients tell us they are enthusiastic users of PwC Augment and that they’re excited by the possibilities of contingent labour.

However given the scale of operational change required, many are also looking for support in designing and deploying a successful blended workforce strategy.

That’s why PwC has developed solutions to contingent labour challenges, both to accelerate the potential of PwC Augment and to provide clients with the tools to maximise the new opportunities of contingent labour.

Contingent labour and the flexible workforce are driving up competitiveness amongst some of the world’s leading organisations, but what’s global today, will become local tomorrow. ■

Brian can be contacted at brian.mcareavey@ pwc.com

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Davos comes to Belfast

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elfast will host an arm of the World Economic Forum’s annual summit held in Davos this month aimed specifically at young business leaders.

It will hold a live streamed conference in under the Shaping Davos moniker as part of a link up with similar events in Seattle, Vancouver and Quito.

It’s part of the Global Shapers Community which is designed to engage emerging leaders under 30 who are making an impact on their communities.

Peter Edgar and Kain Craigs from the Belfast Global Shapers Hub – one of 450 around the world - led the bid on the theme of “Belfast a city ready for the next industrial revolution”.

On January 16th 2017 the Belfast Hub will bring a cross section of high profile speakers to examine how a post-conflict society is transforming itself into a standout digital economy.

The event will also give Belfast a global platform to identify who in Belfast is profitably disrupting traditional industries through data-driven ventures.

The Belfast Hub said it wants to share the belief that cities need to become smarter to accelerate opportunities for all members of its societies.

It said the event gives Belfast a seat at the top table to share what strategies are in place to ensure meritocracy thrives and the most vulnerable don't get left behind.

Kain Craigs said the event lays a marker on the ground.

“This is a brilliant opportunity for Belfast entrepreneurs in the digital economy to cost effectively build their business knowledge and

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The annual curators meeting of the Global Shapers Community

connectivity on a truly worldwide scale,” he said.

and advocate for sustainable economic growth and balanced societal progress.

“This private sector lead initiative is a sign of the times, with millennial mindsets starting to take the lead with forward focused priorities."

The Global Shapers Community (GSC) was founded in 2010 to widen the Forum’s engagement with the largest demographic, over 50% of the worlds population are 27 years of age or younger.

Peter Edgar said Northern Ireland has a lot to shout about.

“We’re the second-fastest growing Knowledge Economy in the UK for the third year running, 435 business startups have launched and 70% of KE sales are outside the EU, so we’re exciting by the potential of the technology sector to create jobs and opportunity in NI. “The Shaping Davos event will be an amazing opportunity to share our story and also learn from other cities like Vancouver, Seattle and Quito who we will be presenting alongside.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to tell the world that we’re inventing incredible breakthrough technology here in Belfast" The World Economic Forum, founded in Geneva in 1971 is a preeminent think-tank

Today it has a network of 430 city hubs designed to target and engage emerging leaders under 30 who are making an impact on their communities.

Dublin and Belfast were invited to join this exclusive next generation global group in 2011 and 2015 respectively. There are now over 5,800 Global Shapers in 172 countries.

The overall theme of the 2017 conference is “Responsive & Responsible Leadership” with five sub themes all relevant to the evolution of business in Northern Ireland . The “Shaping Davos” live stream topic is ‘Cities as Hubs of Innovation’.

The Hubs will be joined by two high profile global industry leaders and a moderator attending Davos. ■

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Outlook for 2017

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

What now in 2017?

John Simpson takes a look at what’s in store for the economy in the year ahead

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he date on the calendar has changed: the new year brings much more than a passive and unremarkable turning of the page.

2017 brings new horizons, wider opportunities and, even before what will be unexpected surprises, brings some foreseeable threats. The business environment, to say the least, can be expected to be challenging.

The professional statisticians believe that in 2017 the UK will avoid a sharp recession.

However, there are reservations. The UK economy will grow more slowly and Northern Ireland will lag a bit behind, but with the combined resilience of consumer spending, along with a slight easing of fiscal austerity supported by facilitated monetary (and interest rate) policy from the Bank of England, the worst fears of an immediate Brexitinduced crash will fade.

For Northern Ireland, the impact of Brexit decision making is not yet clear. The recent assertions that the economy has been much less affected by the outcome of the referendum than the pessimists expected are, of course, premature. Brexit will impact the economy much more, for good or ill, when decisions are made, over the next two years, on the form, content and timing of leaving the EU. Initially, two features of the forthcoming postBrexit world are in evidence. The exchange rate for sterling has taken a serious hit. This

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has given exporters quoting in sterling a stronger lever in the market place. The good news for exporters is welcome, but the reality of the international markets is that the Brexit decision is seen as initially weakening the future prospects of the UK economy.

The unwelcome factor is that for businesses and consumers in the UK, import prices will increase and during 2017 this will impact on consumer spending levels and on the imported cost of materials and services for business.

Northern Ireland has a lot at stake in the outcome of the Brexit negotiations. The implications are very wide ranging. As we enter 2017 there is yet no certainty about: 1. Whether the UK remains in the

Single Market, with the advantages and commitments that would entail.

2. The successor arrangements to follow the Common Agriculture Policy of the EU including clarity on the implications for devolution for farming policies and their financing.

3. The UK policies to take over, for UK maritime areas, fisheries policies.

4. The scope and range of UK social and employment laws as they emerge from the intended Great Repeal legislation to put EU legislation into UK (and NI) domestic law, pending reconsideration and amendment.

5. The fiscal arrangements, particularly for devolution within the UK and probable adjustments to the Barnett formula.

Each of these questions depends on the

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

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negotiations with the EU and will affect all of the UK, including Northern Ireland.

A critical further dimension stems from the potential effects on the island of Ireland, north and south. Although the political dimension has been handled with constructive caution, the decision of the UK to leave the EU has major implications for the Republic of Ireland.

Given the degree of economic and social integration between the UK and Ireland, the British decision will shake and possibly damage some aspects of Irish policy.

Those sectors of the Irish economy which trade heavily with the UK are already dealing with a change in the terms of trade. Food processing and production firms have had their margins squeezed. For some businesses, Northern Ireland may gain by displacing Irish competitors.

A high profile vulnerability will be tested in the still uncertain impact of Brexit in the international competition to attract external investment to this island. During 2017, the emerging details of the EU deal may alter the balance of advantage in seeking FDI either in favour of a more competitive offer in Northern Ireland or in favour of locating

JANUARY 2017

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within a continuing part of the EU, meaning the Republic of Ireland. The outcome of this tension, which will be uncertain until negotiations are complete, will be critical across the whole island.

For Northern Ireland the impact of Brexit decision making is not yet clear.

Brexit will impact the economy much more, for good or ill, when decisions are made, over the next two years.

The problems of doing business in 2017 could too easily be dominated by Brexit. In reality, Brexit is still a looming and threatening series of questions. Arguably, whilst some anticipation is logical, there are other important business issues which call for more immediate attention.

The business community, from shop floor to senior management, should be taking an interest in, and influencing (where possible), the local outcome of a range of developing

issues. This includes: i. The final draft of the Programme for Government ii. The awaited revision of the official economic strategy iii. The Northern Ireland Government budget, including major capital commitments iv. Local decisions on apprenticeship training stemming from the Employer levy v. Support for priority developments in higher education vi. Partial reform of the rating system vii. Further development in the evolution and regulation of the energy market viii. Rationalisation of policies to use supplies of renewable energy and heat ix. Refreshing the policy and objectives of Invest NI, with links to Tourism NI. x. Social and housing policies consistent with ambitious regional development.

Each of these issues deserves a careful detailed articulation emphasising the immediate challenges and tasks.

Looking to 2017, there is a serious agenda for business and community development awaiting coherent professional development even before Brexit is concluded. 2017 is not a year for quiet contemplation. There are hurdles to be jumped! â–

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

Time for a little perspective Economy minister Simon Hamilton looks back to see how far the economy has come and sets his sights on a world-beating future in the coming 12 months

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orthern Ireland’s economy is performing extraordinarily well at present.

The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.6%, its lowest since 2008. The employment rate stands at almost 70%, the highest on record.

Economic inactivity – a long standing, deep seated weakness in our economy – has fallen from over 30% in 2009 to its lowest ever level of 25.8% today.

Over 30,000 fewer people are claiming unemployment related benefits compared to the peak in early 2013.

The economy grew last year by 1.6% with, importantly, that growth being driven by the private rather than the public sector.

Research & Development expenditure hit an all-time high last year of £750m, a 24% increase on the year before.

Northern Ireland welcomed the highest number of external visitors in 2015. And we were the only UK region to increase exports in the last year.

Often we don’t take the time to step back and consider the success we have collectively achieved or compare it to where we have come from, and while we face huge challenges in the time ahead, we must recognise that things are definitely heading in the right direction.

There are lots of great things about being Minister for the Economy but, beyond a doubt, one of the best bits about my job is when I get to see for myself the success of Northern Ireland’s many entrepreneurs.

It is impossible not to be impressed by firms like Dunbia where the Dobson brothers

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have grown from a small butcher’s shop near Dungannon in 1976 to become one of the biggest meat processors in the United Kingdom, exporting to over 30 markets and employing around 4,000 people. Or companies like Randox, formed back in 1982

by Dr Peter FitzGerald with six employees working from an old henhouse. Today, Randox is a global leader in healthcare diagnostics. It employs more than 1,400 employees across 145 countries and is producing one in 10 of all cholesterol tests used worldwide.

And Brian Conlon whose company First Derivatives is providing technology solutions for some of the world’s biggest banks and financial institutions.

We are fortunate to have so many local businesses doing as well as they are not just in Northern Ireland but beyond these shores too.

I’ve seen how businesses like Ulster Carpets and SDC Trailers are able to go to places like the Middle East and compete and win contracts because of the quality of their products.

I am pleased that our economy is showing signs of steady improvement but I don’t just want us to be content with better than it was. I want Northern Ireland to start to shift up a level and become a genuinely globally competitive economy.

I will continue to focus the efforts of my Department on increasing international trade opportunities, scaling up high growth potential companies, embedding innovation and research in the DNA of every company, growing our reputation as a start-up nation, developing stand out clusters in our economy that are linked to where we have world class

Simon Hamilton

academic research capabilities, enhancing the skills and employability of our people and building the best economic infrastructure, all of which will be centrepieces of our new Economic Strategy.

We may be a small region, but I have big ambitions for our economy. I know that transforming our economy into a globally competitive one isn’t going to be easy but I firmly believe that we have all of the ingredients in place to do it.

Northern Ireland has a rich and proud industrial heritage. Let us draw our inspiration and solidify our belief that our best days lie ahead of us from the experience of our forefathers and the example of the entrepreneurs of today.

They have shown us that no matter how small Northern Ireland is and no matter what the challenges are that we face, we can and we will succeed on the world stage. ■

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

Laying the foundations for economic prosperity Tina Merron, CEO of the Integrated Education Fund, explains why integrated education is essential to a progressive and successful economy

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stable, flourishing economy is one of the aspects underpinning the new Programme for Government

(PfG).

The latest version of the PfG from the Executive Office acknowledges the role education will play in reaching many of the aspirations of the government – both social and economic.

It’s obvious the foundations of a secure and sustainable future must be laid with young people. Young people must develop the right skills, not only to ‘feed’ the economy and secure employment (or indeed create employment) but also to become confident citizens, engaging in their community and feeling that they are stakeholders in society.

Tina Merron

All schools aim to produce well-educated pupils, ready for the next stage in life, but given that today’s society is increasingly globalised and given the increasing diversity of life in Northern Ireland, traditional education – with the traditional system of learning and testing – is having to change to meet these challenges.

A US academic, James Nehring, studied the methods of a group of different schools in Northern Ireland. He was researching ways to develop education of the “whole child” instilling academic knowledge alongside skills which equip pupils for modern adult life.

All the schools studied in NI had a high proportion of pupils on free school meals (an official measure of social and economic

deprivation) and all achieve good results. Of the integrated school he visited, Professor Nehring said: “Integration was a theme woven into the curriculum and ethos of the school and, because it is a complex theme, it called upon an array of skills that are deep and broad. The Department of Education should prioritise cross-community integration as a means to fostering 21st-century skills...”

A strong economy and a progressive society will depend upon our building these skills in the rising generation.

The Club de Madrid is a think-tank comprising former presidents and prime ministers from 58 democratic countries. Its 2011 report on building a shared society (post-conflict) stated “Shared societies generate economic dividends for governments, businesses, communities, families, and individuals.

Through a “virtuous cycle”, these economic dividends of a shared society further enhance a society’s capacity to be shared, which in turn, generates more economic dividends.”

Pupils from Portadown Integrated Primary School

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These key influencers see sharing and cohesion as crucial in rebuilding a community, both economically and socially. And it follows

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

Pupils from a number of integrated primaries and colleges took part in the celebration for Integrated Education Week at Stormont

that removing one of the major divisions in Northern Ireland – the effective segregation of our education system - would be an important practical step, as well as sending out a clear signal of our commitment to a united future.

Integrating our education system would bring economic as well as social benefits, by reducing wastage and making better use of a limited budget.

If we reduced the administration costs associated with over-supply of desks and of running multiple management authorities, we could spend more in schools, making sure pupils have access to resources, equipment and a curriculum fit for the 21st century.

Showing that we have used creative thinking to bring children of all traditions together, incidentally making the best use of resources, tells the world that Northern Ireland has a vision and a strategy. It demonstrates planning for future citizens, rather than

JANUARY 2017

Pupils from North Coast Integrated College, Coleraine

retaining old patterns of behaviour and being beholden to vested interests.

To compete internationally and attract investment, we must make sure that “Brand NI” represents social cohesion, not segregation. A place ready for the challenges of modern business - where difference is not a cause of division, but a cause for celebration.

This is the learning experience of more than

20,000 students in integrated schools in Northern Ireland, but they are in the minority of students.

Rolling out education reform, to bring all cultures and backgrounds together in the classroom every day, would offer young people the grounding they need for the jobs market, would form the basis of a more cohesive society, and would represent meaningfully and practically the Assembly’s commitment to progress. ■

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

Made in NI – the future Stephen Kelly, chief executive of trade body Manufacturing Northern Ireland, looks at how the seismic political events of the last few months will impact the sector here

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he UK’s decision to leave the EU and President Trump’s election herald seismic shifts in global economic policy. Nearer home we have our new Executive developing its Programme for Government and a return of an Official Opposition.

The Minister’s plans will hopefully build on good news when it comes to business rates.

Manufacturing NI warmly welcomes the Finance Minister’s confirmation that the industrial rates cap will be retained. We hope both the Executive and Assembly will provide its support.

However, we can be grateful for a bit more stability locally with our new Executive and a turn towards traditional politics with the arrival of an official opposition.

Manufacturing NI secured the cap and has demonstrated to the Executive and Assembly that this policy is not simply about avoiding harm but doing some good. The cap allows investment in new facilities and machinery and secured existing and new jobs across Northern Ireland.

Government don’t create manufacturing success but it does create the conditions which allow manufacturers to grow, generating wealth and work.

What happens in the White House, Westminster and Stormont does matter.

Entering 2016, we described the sector as “brittle.” To that we must now add “uncertain” given world events.

Washington’s trade policy and attitude towards foreign investment and what deal Westminster can secure after Article 50 is triggered will define 2017 and the years beyond. More locally the Executive’s refreshed Economic Strategy will direct investment, skills development and enterprise and trade support out to 2021.

It will also, hopefully, ensure exporting companies can finally enjoy competitive energy prices. Fundamentally, it is an opportunity to instil confidence and stability.

The Economy Minister visited Germany and explored the success of their ‘Mittelstand’ firms recently. Family-owned, investing profits in skills, innovation and quality with their output enjoyed in global markets. In many ways there are similarities with our own home-grown manufacturing sector.

The challenge for the Executive is to ensure they can compete at home and abroad.

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If the right deal were achieved, we could see the re-industrialisation of Northern Ireland and with it more and better jobs in every constituency, but here is a need for bravery and creativity.

It’s a positive demonstration that the Executive are keen to deliver competitiveness. We will review plans to apply rates to empty factories.

Whilst we share the Minister’s desire to see these spaces put to positive economic use, this proposal brings into sharp focus the need for both a local Manufacturing Strategy and benefits from Westminster’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy. These would drive demand for these spaces and direct Invest NI to secure new foreign direct investment and support the expansion of existing firms.

A manufacturing plan focused on building a competitive, skilled, innovative and growing sector with a target of 20% of local GDP will bring some certainty in an uncertain world.

What’s left is the need to ensure that we retain

Stephen Kelly

access to the EU market and skilled and semiskilled labour.

It’s not simply about “no return to the borders of the past”, it should be about no return of any border, in any form. Borders bring costs and smuggling both of which destroy legitimate businesses.

If the right deal were achieved, we could see the re-industrialisation of Northern Ireland and with it more and better jobs in every constituency, but here is a need for bravery and creativity.

Can Northern Ireland be uniquely positioned within the single market or with a freeport or free trade zone status? Can we have a Minister for Manufacturing to work closely with Simon Hamilton, Invest NI and the sector?

What we do know is that when manufacturing grows, the whole economy grows with it and that’s worth positively fighting for.

Just as politics creates the conditions for business to create work, so too can business create the conditions to make Brexit work.

Hopefully 2017 will see a rational and not just a political outcome. ■

Supporting local trade How WorkPal is helping local businesses manage their workflows, reduce their costs and win more business

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arclay Communications and WorkPal MD, Britt Megahey explains how WorkPal is helping local businesses streamline their workflows and the business benefits its bringing them.

What is WorkPal? WorkPal is a mobile and desktop app that allows our customers to easily manage their entire workflows from job management, tracking, reporting and invoicing, all from the palm of their hand. The app also allows for important checks to be completed such as vehicle checks for your field-based staff.

Why was it developed?

WorkPal was developed in 2013 as a response to the growing need for a more efficient way of managing field-based staff. Many of our Barclay Communications customers in the renewables, electrical, plumbing and heating and facilities management trade were approaching us and asking if there was a workflow system out there that could streamline their workflows and improve business processes, but it is a solution that is easily transferable across multiple sectors and in 2017 we will be developing specific modules for Health and Education.

How does it work?

It allows mobile workers to access customised job sheets from a mobile app where they are guided through their task and report back instantaneously on progress. Once completed, there is enough

information to allow more efficient invoicing, even from out in the field. That end-to-end process management is key and makes sure that the accounts department is totally integrated with the people in the field and everyone in between.

Forthcoming enhancements include integration with Accountancy packages such as Sage and QuickBooks and a comprehensive Health & Safety Module.

How does it help local businesses?

There are many benefits of utilising the WorkPal technology. For starters, it means the whereabouts of field operatives can be tracked from starting to finishing work, meaning it’s easier for the boss to keep control, no matter where they or their workers are. And of course, it does away with the need for endless reams of paper records. One advantage our product has over the competition is that it is a lot more user-friendly. Uniquely, it can be integrated with a company’s own internal systems making it much more effective. We now have a diverse range of clients from winter maintenance suppliers, plumbers, electrical engineering contractors, renewable energy contractors and ventilation contractors.

There are a few other systems available out there, but they are non-customisable, off-theshelf products. WorkPal is very flexible as the product was wholly developed in-house at Barclay Communications. We’re finding many customers are now winning more business and tenders thanks to the traceability of job tracking and reporting that WorkPal provides.

Looking Ahead?

WorkPal has grown sharply in the last few months, helped by its recent launch on IOS/ Apple devices and the development of the Lone Worker feature now on live demo.

Future releases will include development of Wearable devices to aid with the Lone worker

Britt Megahey

application and seamless integration across multiple devices. As a business we will focus on further growth in 2017, developing the export markets across Europe, the Middle East and USA utilising a partner network to help realise this goal.

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

David McWilliams: 'It is almost certain that there will be another euro crisis in 2017'

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t is almost certain that there will be another euro crisis in 2017. The last time we had a euro crisis, the focus of attention was Greece; today the vortex is Italy.

Italy is not Greece. Italy is the third-largest economy in the eurozone. Italy is the secondlargest manufacturing nation in the EU after Germany. Italy is the largest debtor in Europe.

The third-largest Italian bank is irredeemably bankrupt. Italy has no government and the people who are likely to win the next election want to take Italy out of the euro and replace the euro with their own currency, the lira.

These are the facts.

The Republic’s Finance Minister has said there is no problem in the eurozone. I really don't know what planet he is living on.

By March, it is likely that Marine Le Pen will be the frontrunner in the French presidential election. Could she win? Of course she could.

And if she wins, the euro is toast.

There is already a massive capital flight from Italy. This flight of money will extend to France in the months ahead.

The euro is the problem and if the EU wants to save itself, it may have to abandon the euro. Quite what that looks like is anyone's guess, but here are the political facts: the two main Italian opposition parties, the people who won on Sunday, want Italy to hold a referendum on leaving the euro. Furthermore, Le Pen has explicitly stated that the day she wins, if she does, she will pull France out of the euro and reinstate the French franc.

Unfortunately for the EU, if Greece was a tricky issue to deal with, Italy is - in economic terms - a massive Greece.

Le Pen currently has 40% of the electorate.

All she needs is the same type of momentum that propelled Brexit, Donald Trump, and the vote in Italy, where the government lost - not by a few per cent, but by a whopping 60% to 40%.

Unlike Greece when it was going bust, Italy can't be patronised, isolated and vilified by the likes of Slovakia, Finland and - shamefully – the Irish Government. Italy is a country of close to 60m people and unlike the UK, who were always semi-detached Europeans, the Italians are founding members of the EU and original signatories of the Treaty of Rome, which is 60 years old in March.

After Italy, the chances of Ms Le Pen winning in France have increased yet again. We are talking about a political movement that is jumping across borders, across continents. It is nothing short of a democratic insurrection against the establishment and it is happening all over the world. Every time the outsider wins in one country, it emboldens the next outsider in the next country to have a go.

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We are not immune. Arguably, Ireland was the canary in the coal mine.

This time last year, Fine Gael strategists - and almost everyone else - were confident that the recovering economy would be enough to propel them into government.

In the end, Fine Gael lost 25 seats. Similarly, in the UK the Remain side was confident that the British people wouldn't make a leap in to the dark and vote to leave the EU. The Remain side made Fine Gael-style arguments about how well the economy was doing, how low unemployment was and how "looney" the opposition was; the electorate didn't buy it.

The same happened with Mr Trump. Hillary Clinton argued that things in America were essentially good and Mr Trump was mad. The electorate backed Mr Trump.

The same thing happened in Italy and the electorate went for the disunited opposition, rather than the so-called sensible, safe-pairof-hands government.

I think the same will happen in France.

So 2017 will be the year the British leave the EU, the year Italian banks go bust and Italy's new government is headed for the first time ever by people who want to break up the euro, and it could be the year that Le Pen wins in France. >

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

In term of the crisis in the euro, Italy will be the epicentre, so let's focus on it. Three weeks ago, I wrote this column from Rome and suggested that a No vote was likely.

But let's gain a bit of altitude and put the problem of Italy and the rest of southern Europe in context.

At its most basic, Italy has the same problem that Greece, Spain, and Portugal have. It's a familiar story.

People in the south of the eurozone borrowed to buy goods from the wealthier north, mainly from Germany. This type of prosperity is rented, not earned. The economic growth they anticipated failed to occur. So there was a repayment problem.

The goods the southerners bought were mainly things like cars and nice goodies, so

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for the banks that lent to the people, there is no collateral to recover.

Writing off a massive loan as a loss will render the bank insolvent, so instead it goes into "extend and pretend" mode. The banks decide not to call in loans and try to extend repayment terms. But as growth evaporates, these loans just get worse with time, not better. And the sense of crisis spreads amongst the people like a virus in a crèche.

That's what is happening in Italy and indeed throughout Southern Europe.

€40bn just to remain solvent.

Now with no government there is no plan as to how to raise the money to plug the hole in the Italian banks' balance sheets.

It was announced last month that Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest bank and the third largest lender in Italy, will be bailed out by the government this weekend.

This is the beginning. In fact, the Italian State may well have fired the gun for capital to leave the country and head to Germany.

Eighteen percent of the total loans made by Italian banks are now considered to be nonperforming and Italian banks have no extra capital.

Contagion will spread to France and it is against this background that France will host its presidential election.

Estimates are that Italian banks may need

What odds on President Le Pen now? ■

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017

Planting the seeds of rural enterprise Diane Roberts, Managing Partner at Xcell Partners, looks Northern Ireland’s rural entrepreneur culture Diane Roberts

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hroughout my career I have been lucky enough to work with many innovative, inspiring and forwardthinking Northern Ireland entrepreneurs.

I never cease to be amazed by how, through sheer determination, flexibility and ambition, the branches of what started out as a small seed of an idea, can grow across the globe.

But the roots of a start-up are where it all begins. The origin of a business is its heart and the birthplace of its journey, no matter where it ends up. In recent years, I’ve observed an increasing amount of rural businesses emerging and going on to achieve great success.

Of course it isn’t surprising that a large portion of our business talent comes from outside urban areas, given that some 40% of our population is based in the rural community. However, the rise of the ‘rural entrepreneur’ has challenged the stereotypical image of the city based start-up and is an interesting trend to observe as we head into 2017.

Nishi’s commitment to innovation, Waste Systems has experienced significant growth and recently secured a multimillion pound deal with Green Waste Energy in the USA. Nishi employs 20 people and 30 contractors and continues to drive his business through research and development.

Another innovative business, in Dungannon, Cheryl McWilliams produces handmade, natural skincare products for horses and other animals, based on an old beeswax recipe passed down from her mother.

The family had used the technique for four generations before a local vet, impressed by its healing properties, encouraged Cheryl to bring it to market to aid animals with skincare problems. Since then, Mother Bee Skincare has become a trusted supplier to

some of the largest thoroughbred studs in the world and its products are exported to countries including New Zealand, France and Sweden.

Carrickmore entrepreneur Darren Nugent brought craft brewing to life in County Tyrone for the first time in over three generations back in 2014. Seeing a niche in the market for traditionally produced, small batch artisan ale, Darren launched Pokertree Brewing Company. His ales, made using all natural ingredients, have enjoyed a hugely positive response from the local retail and hospitality sectors, with his plans for becoming an international brand well within sight.

Some businesses wear their rural roots on their sleeve – with nature playing the lead

Whilst agriculture is naturally the largest business category in rural areas, other sectors of note include construction, property and business services, retail and production.

Recently, alongside Invest Northern Ireland, I was involved in bringing the Lord Lieutenant of County Tyrone Robert Lowry Scott to visit a selection of businesses throughout the area – each of which are shining examples of thriving rural start-ups.

Headed up by Nishi Nugent, Waste Systems in Omagh specialises in the manufacture of waste separation machinery. Thanks to

36

Cheryl McWilliams, founder of Mother Bee Skincare is pictured with Lord Lieutenant of County Tyrone, Robert Lowry Scott as they officially open the new business premises in Benburb, County Tyrone

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OUTLOOK FOR 2017 role in their product offering. In County Antrim, Crumlin based The Present Tree is the brainchild of Catherine Cunningham.

Combining her love of trees, ancient heritage and design, Catherine sells beautifully wrapped trees as luxury, eco-friendly, organic gifts. A full 98% of Catherine’s sales are within export markets and she has achieved a remarkable 350% sales growth in the past year.

These companies are merely a few examples of rural entrepreneurial success in Northern Ireland today. These types of businesses play a valuable role in the wider economy, creating vital employment and encouraging regional redevelopment.

Whilst a specific set of challenges still face some rural start-ups, from IT to distribution, steps taken by Government such as the Superfast Rollout Project are hugely beneficial.

There can also be great advantage to being based outside the main urban network, in terms of cost savings through lower rates and opportunities for exporting.

Carrickmore entrepreneur Darren Nugent, founder of Pokertree Brewing, is pictured with Lord Lieutenant of County Tyrone Robert Lowry Scott and Diane Roberts, Managing Partner, Xcell Partners

I would encourage entrepreneurs to seek out the right support, advice and guidance at an early stage to make the right decisions based on your needs.

When I first encountered each of the above businesses, they were starting out their journey on Invest Northern Ireland’s Propel Programme, seeking to turn a start-up into a global, scalable business.

Their subsequent achievements are the result of ongoing hard work, flexibility and a tireless vision of where they want to be.

But perhaps the roots of these businesses are another vital ingredient to their success – providing the perfect foundation from which they can grow.

By telling their story internationally, our start-up businesses shine the light not just on Northern Ireland, not just on Belfast, but on our towns, villages and communities– and fly the flag for our world-class talent right across the globe. ■

JANUARY 2017

Nishi Ward, centre, founder of Waste Systems in Plumbridge, is pictured with Lord Lieutenant of County Tyrone Robert Lowry Scott and Diane Roberts, Managing Partner, Xcell Partners

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The productivity gap Gareth Howell, Director at Osborne King, explains why quality office accommodation is key to address Northern Ireland’s productivity gap

H

enry Ford, the great American industrialist, is quoted as saying “I am always puzzled to find union leaders speaking of increased worker productivity as though workers must sweat harder to produce more”.

In our modern world it can be difficult to assess productivity as compared to Henry Ford’s era of heavy industry, especially in the service economy, but a new report continuing the work of Chris Stoddart and led by the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) promotes the concept that the modern factory - i.e. the office - is a key contributor to workplace productivity.

Gareth Howell

In our post-Brexit environment we hear much in the media about the productivity gap between the UK and the larger economies in Europe despite reports of our longer working hours. As we “consciously uncouple” from our European cousins and with the subsequent uncertainty still unfolding, the productivity challenge is one that faces all businesses in the new and immediate economic landscape.

Although much has been said about the productivity gap, little weight has been given to the vital role the workplace has to play as either an inhibitor or facilitator of productivity.

The Stoddart Review is a not-for-profit initiative which seeks to raise awareness among business leaders regarding the importance of the workplace and real estate as a performance lever in this sphere.

The Stoddart Review’s research has revealed that the majority of organisations are simply not appraising their workplace contribution to organisational performance, despite the fact that after salaries, property is the second largest cost for any company.

In Belfast, offices have traditionally been workplace “fortresses” housing and securing the public sector against the “troubles” of the past: a combination of elements that naturally drove design, such as it was, towards the concept of function over form and led by the needs of the environment rather than the user.

In conjunction with this, the public dominated office market often determined rental levels, dangling the carrot of large scale occupation to offset the unviable rental levels on offer.

In this context the developer market, in some cases, railed against the status-quo by valueengineering the end product.

also now recognising the role that quality office accommodation plays in attracting and retaining staff in an ever more competitive environment.

The result of this is a modern market with an under-supply of true “Grade A” offices. There are a few exceptions that emerged just before the recession that indicated a burgeoning sophistication in the market but of course this progress tapered off all too soon.

Imposing atriums, generous communal areas, onsite cafes, break-out areas, integrated technology and quality of finishes may be significant drivers of cost in the construction phase however attempting to establish new rental tones without due consideration to these attributes is going to be a challenge and will limit the appeal of any building over the longer term.

In 2016 we emerge, despite recent macroeconomic events, as a city attracting continued interest from foreign investment with a handful of new, quality office developments, a skilled labour pool and the beginning of what may become a genuinely complex and stratified office rental market based not just on property fundamentals such as, location, age and condition but also design aspects which may include, expansive common areas, generous floor to ceiling heights, a variety of work spaces, integrated services and access to technology.

What the Stoddart Review affirms for those involved in office development is the importance of the physical workspace. Whilst any number of pods, height-adjustable desks, breakout areas and even slides can augment an office interior, there are attributes to the fabric that are embedded at the base-build design phase which cannot be easily revisited.

In 2016 and beyond it is no longer just coffee-quaffing hipsters who want effective and engaging office space but all employees, regardless of age. Leading employers too are

Productivity in the office environment can be measured by many metrics but the tone is often set by the environment in which the operations take place. Many occupiers and employers are looking at measuring satisfaction on a broader basis. Ultimately in an era when we are all more connected to our offices and the lines between work and our personal lives blur, a satisfied worker is more likely to be a productive one.

So just in case you are not convinced by the importance of marginal gains in productivity, News Night’s Economic Correspondent, Duncan Weldon, states that a 1% gain in productivity would add £20bn to the UK national output, reducing the government deficit by around £8bn and add £250 a year to the average wage packet.

If Belfast is to stand out on an international stage, not only do we need investment in office development but we must show that our understanding of workplace matches our aspirations. ■

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# Imaginethat How real-world business problems can be solved by the

TITLE

application of digital disruption Seamus Cushley, Director, EMEA Blockchain, FinTech & Digital at PwC, explains how your business needs a well thought-out digital strategy that includes disruptive technologies such as Blockchain come up with a technical solution based on human-centric design where we try to understand what you, as a human, want to do.

When we find that out we use technology as a supporting mechanism to get the job done.

Seamus Cushley

I

magine if you could harness the potential of digital to solve the problems which hold your business back and unlock new opportunities.

Imagine if technology could be used to enable individuals to make better decisions for the good of society.

Imagine if such transformation was already taking place.

At first glance it might not seem so, but look a little closer and you’ll see design orientated companies applying emergent and disruptive technology in clever ways to solve needs of their customers, to automate their business processes, overcome issues and develop completely new revenue streams.

We, at PwC, are working with some of those organisations around the globe to steer them through that transformative journey, all from our Digital Campus here in Belfast.

It’s a service which has never been more important than now, in light of the huge amount of information thrown at companies on a minute-by-minute basis and last minute decisions which need to be made at lightning speed.

To do that we need to find out why they care about technology and to do that we take them through a number of design workshop suites.

We find out what problems they have and

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A great example of that is in the application of Blockchain technology to solve realworld problems, a particular speciality of PwC in Belfast, and one which is truly transformative.

For the first time in history we have a technology which allows us to establish trust between two individuals, two corporates or two machines and transfer value without the need for a third party.

We can now solve an age old human need; to establish trust in an uncertain environment and based on that trust, exchange value. It has the potential to transform the way we do business and transform society.

For instance, if you buy a property you have to trust a solicitor with the exchange of the contract and a bank for the exchange of funds – both those can be handled securely with Blockchain.

It can be used in the insurance industry to offer greater transparency of risk when you take out a policy, in financial services to guarantee peer payments, all the while giving regulators clear visibility of all transactions all of the time.

Blockchain can be used in government in the drive toward the digital citizen, allowing you, as a citizen to passport your digital identity so you don’t need to continually prove who you are when it comes to applying to the land registry, the health service or other government services.

And in the same way it can be used – as PwC has already done – to create one

single platform where a student’s academic and other achievements can be stored in a verified digital wallet and where employers can identify and shape talent on a continuous basis.

These examples are just the tip of a very big iceberg.

We are at the beginning of what many regard as Industrial Revolution 4 or what is also known as the third wave of the internet where disruptive technologies such as Blockchain, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and robotics are combining to create a chaotic mix.

We help companies go on a journey with technology, from lack of awareness to the ability to engage, experiment, digitise and disrupt.

Imagine what we could do for your company. ■ For more information contact Seamus at seamus.cushley@pwc.com twitter @ seamuscushley

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Leaders in Business The personalities driving the Northern Ireland economy

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As Northern Ireland’s top law firm, we lead the way.

Our extensive knowledge, experience and talent has once again been recognised by the Legal 500, naming us Regional Law Firm of the Year.

We are also top ranked by Chambers and Partners UK in more areas of expertise than any other law firm in Northern Ireland.

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FOREWORD

Leadership more important than ever in turbulent times

By Michael Johnston, Carson McDowell

the best people and selling them on your vision, then bringing them on board to help you realise those goals.

Carson McDowell was recently named as the Legal 500’s Northern Ireland Law Firm of the Year for a second time and once again emerged as the leading Northern Irish firm in the 2017 edition of Chambers and Partners UK Guide, ranked as ‘band one’ across more practice areas than any other local firm.

We are Northern Ireland’s largest independent law firm and those accolades are testament to our continued efforts to recruit and retain the best talent and the importance we place on delivering for our clients. In both of those industry guides the firms and individuals listed are recommended purely on merit, with the rankings based on extensive research and the independent opinions of clients.

I

t is often said by people living in the midst of turbulent times that strong leadership is needed to help steer the world away from economic, societal and political danger.

As I welcome you to this year’s Ulster Business Leaders in Business issue, it is fair to say that this statement holds true. We have emerged from a year of shocks and surprises and are facing into an uncertain 2017 which will undoubtedly see much change at a local, national and global level.

Very soon we will see how US President Donald Trump’s particular brand of leadership translates from the election trail to The White House and we’ll also gain greater insight into how successfully the UK government can lead the country out of the EU. There will be plenty to

JANUARY 2017

occupy the minds of Northern Ireland’s business leaders in the 12 months ahead.

Carson McDowell is delighted to sponsor the Leaders in Business issue, which recognises some of those in our business community who are making a difference as leaders of their organisations, as well as some of the Ones to Watch in future. There are great success stories in Northern Ireland business and the people behind those stories deserve to be celebrated.

Most great business leaders are the driving force behind their organisations and, while there are many different styles of leadership, and a variety of traits which support their success, one common theme that emerges when you talk to those at the top is the importance they place on building a stellar team around them. They recognise that being a leader means identifying

Our success as a firm is also a reflection of the success of our clients and the leadership they are showing in their industries. We advise some of the largest, most commercially sophisticated local businesses as well as blue-chip industrial, service and financial companies, emerging enterprises, public bodies and international clients operating in Northern Ireland.

Many of our clients expressed concern in 2016 over the potential impact that global and local issues such as Brexit and the US elections might have on their companies. However, we haven’t seen the leaders of those businesses holding back on the plans they had in place at the start of last year. Instead, they have shown real leadership, weighed up the options and taken bold decisions that they believe will help their organisations to progress, grow and prosper in 2017 and beyond.

Congratulations to all those who are included in this year’s Leaders in Business issue. Your success is richly deserved. ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Brendan McGurgan Managing Director of CDE

T

o say Brendan McGurgan has achieved a lot in a short space of time is something of an understatement.

The boss of one of the most innovative companies in one of the most innovative sectors in Northern Ireland – materials handling – has led the firm into new geographies, new sectors and in a new manner since taking over the top job in 2007.

Along the way he kept his he kept his head down before very nearly sweeping the board at this year’s Institute of Directors Awards, picking up the title of Young Director of the Year together with the ultimate title of Director of the Year.

Both titles were from a UK-wide field and are awards which aren’t given lightly, so what sets the 42-year old apart from his peers when it comes to leading from the front?

“Authenticity, positivity, ability to challenge, good communication skills, being a good listener, a willingness to learn, great attitude, passion for the brand, an ability to understand the numbers, be trustworthy, be approachable, be decisive and have the ability to set clear goals aligned with a vision,” he told Ulster Business, before drawing breath.

“I am still working on some of these every day!”

Such a comprehensive remit has been front and centre of his thinking in the job, one which called for an outside-the-box approach to what is a traditional industry.

“When I came into the role of managing

44

director, the big challenge for me was how to bring something different to the role. I’m not from an engineering background but, given that we have some of the best engineers in the industry, there was no need for me to be.”

Having the ability to recognise your own and others’ strengths is something Brendan learned in his early career.

After studying at Ulster University he joined PwC in 1998 before being admitted to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in March 2000.

He then joined Amacis Ltd, a software startup company, as Group Financial Controller, which gave him experience of raising finance through venture capitalists and the mechanics of setting up and conducting business in America and Asia Pacific.

Brendan joined CDE in October 2003 as Financial Controller and was appointed to the Board of Directors in March 2004 before becoming Managing Director of the company in May 2007.

And despite picking up a lot of experience in a short space of time, he’s well aware that there’s always more to learn.

“I have always been hugely ambitious and remain so but it is important to remember that success in your career comes from trying to improve yourself a little every day.”

Under Brendan’s leadership, CDE has grown substantially in the last few years.

It now operates across five sectors in eight regions regions “empowering our customers

to demand more from the world’s mineral resources”.

It works in sectors as diverse as mining, construction material, industrial sands, construction & demolition waste recycling and environmental but in almost everything tries to help customers turn material that has been traditionally seen as a waste product into a valuable resource.

LEADERS IN BUSINESS

CDE has grown substantially in the last few years under an all-encompassing approach.

“We have managed our recent growth by having a clear, well-communicated strategy that people are engaged with because they’ve been involved in the creation of that strategy.

We launched our 2020 Vision strategy last year which sets some very ambitions targets for further growth.

JANUARY 2017

“These targets didn’t come from the board of directors; they were created after we consulted with every person in the company to understand where they felt the challenges and opportunities lay for us over the next five years.

“As a result, our people have all invested in the strategy and are committed to its successful execution.”

As a result, Brendan expects to add 100 to the company’s headcount between now and 2020 on the back of one simple plan: “Our vision is to be the number one wet processing equipment company in every country in the world.”

It sounds grand, but he will probably achieve it. ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Val Smith General Manager at Bond Delivery

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ou would be hard pushed to find a better advocate for the logistics sector than Val Smith.

Her enthusiasm for the industry in which she has built a very successful career is secondto-none and it is one in which she is hugely knowledgable.

“It is the most exciting industry to work in,” she told Ulster Business.

“If you want something outside the nine-tofive then there are so many opportunities in logistics.

“If you have good organisation skills, a bucket load of common sense and a willingness to learn, then you’ll get the best training and career prospects available.”

Val should know, having worked her way up through the industry to become boss of Bond Delivery.

After a stint at Ulster Bank after leaving school, Val came to her vocation in the distribution depot of Rank Hovis on the Ravenhill Road – one of the first firms in Northern Ireland to have equal pay for both men and women – where she rose up through the ranks to run the depot.

From there it was on to Bond Delivery, the then Imperial Tobacco-owned company she would go on to head, initially to run the company’s administration from the Castlereagh headquarters before it moved to Boucher Road.

JANUARY 2017

The sale of the business by the tobacco giant saw a brief period of ownership by Rockwood Holdings before it was bought by the current owner McBurney Transport, a move which propagated significant growth.

“We excel in the niche market place where we’re offering added value,” Val said.

“We’re always asking what more we can do for our clients and have built up new strands of business by doing just that.”

“We started building the company from there and were able to offer full service collection from anywhere in the UK to Northern Ireland,” Val said.

While forging ahead, Val acknowledges the industry here has challenges, particularly when it comes to recruitment.

Contracts with the likes of Shop Electric, as well as with ESB and Gallahers in the Republic on the back of its tobacco delivery experience, followed necessitating a new warehouse in Nutts Corner.

“We have a major driver shortage in Northern Ireland. The anti-social hours make it difficult to attract young people into the sector but it provides such great opportunities and we need to shout about that.

A contract with a major clothing retailer soon saw that site expanded with a second warehouse and, despite losing Shop Electric to its receivership, that focus on diversification into retail and ambient food saw Bond Delivery go from strength-to-strength.

“These are highly-trained people armed with a host of knowledge and we need to shine a light on them.”

That business continues apace at present with the additio n of a sports retailer, a parcel company the ability to deliver right across the island of Ireland.

Its pick-and-pack operation at Nutts Corner means if you order a certain brand of clothing before midnight and Bond Delivery will have it with you the next day through a fleet of seven vans which run from 2am to deliver to customers and to stores.

The business now employs 200 people and looks set to continue on an upward trajectory.

Val has certainly been doing her bit for the industry, having been the first female chair of the UK-wide body The Road Haulage Association and remains passionate about getting more women into the sector.

If any incentive were needed, just ask Val if she enjoys her job.

“I love it. I’m never bored as there’s always something happening.

“It is the most exciting industry to work in.”

With that, Val’s off to make sure your Christmas deliveries are on time.

She, like the industry, never stops. ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

John Hansen Partner in Charge and Head of Advisory at KPMG in Northern Ireland

H

eading up one of the biggest business advisory firms in Northern Ireland is no small task but it’s one which John Hansen manages with the combination of a steady hand and an ambitious outlook.

When we meet, he’s reflecting – somewhat surprisingly - on the fact he has been a chartered accountant for more than 30 years, a period of time in which he has thoroughly mastered his brief and, indeed, the world of business both near and far.

After a degree in Economics and Accounting at Queen’s University, John trained at Coopers & Lybrand in Belfast where he stayed for a number of years, gaining extensive accounting experience working in a small accountancy firm the company purchased in Omagh before eventually running the Restructuring Department of Cork Gully, the insolvency arm of Coopers & Lybrand.

The chance to become a partner and build from scratch a Restructuring and Forensics practice at a local independent firm in Belfast saw John spend 14 years at that firm before moving to KPMG, again in the Restructuring and Forensics space, 11 years ago nearly to the day on December 21.

“The attraction of KPMG was to work with

48

a big four firm which could command larger assignments and present more challenges,” he said.

get involved in, particularly when you host the world’s most important conference of G8 nations taking place during your tenure.

“The last 11 years have been interesting, enjoyable and challenging. If you’re working in a field which you enjoy then time passes very quickly.”

He’s has also been involved in a number of other high profile cases including the Presbyterian Mutual Society where he is Joint Supervisor, the Odyssey Pavilion and he is also heavily involved in the liquidation of IBRC bank in Dublin, to name but a few. His name has popped up over the years every time there is a high profile and complicated case.

To some, the world of Restructuring and Forensics might not, on the face of it, appear an enjoyable area to work in but for John it is hugely rewarding.

“Our specific intention with every assignment is to see what we can do to keep the company open. In many instances we’ve been called in too late in the day to do that but if there’s any way we can keep a company going we will.

“The Lough Erne Resort in Enniskillen is a great example of that. We traded Lough Erne successfully for a number of years, resolved some significant issues before selling it last year.

“It was a huge success because we managed to keep jobs in the area and maintain the viability of a major draw for tourists.”

A huge success indeed and probably something (from the point of view of running a hotel) you wouldn’t expect accountants to

Significant commercial and business experience directly with trading companies was also gained by John over the years including a two year secondment to the then Industrial Development Board (now Invest NI) and when he became Non-Executive Director of a sizeable manufacturing company for a number of years before he sold the business for the owners.

With such experience, John is not the normal chartered accountant and now, as Partner in Charge of KPMG’s Northern Ireland operations, he’s taking on a new challenge.

As Ulster Business goes to press, he’s just signed the lease on two floors of Grade A office accommodation in the prestigious Soloist building in front of the Belfast Waterfront Hall, where John is pictured.

LEADERS IN BUSINESS

The move from the firm’s current headquarters is expected to take place early in 2017 and will see the 250 KPMG staff transfer to the new building, one which has room for further expansion.

“What I want to do in Northern Ireland is grow the business,” John said.

“We have fantastic people a great client base and we want to build on that by doing as much as we can for them and bringing our experience and expertise to others.

That’s something which is backed by KPMG’s Dublin Partners.

“The firm is very clear: the Northern Ireland operations are very important to what we do in Ireland and globally and will remain so.

“We have a global reach and that’s something which stands us in very good stead with local clients who are doing business around the world.”■

JANUARY 2017

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Suzanne Wylie Chief Executive of Belfast City Council

I

t may appear odd to name the chief executive of a council as a Leader in Business but few would argue with the inclusion of Suzanne Wylie in this year’s list.

She exemplifies the new breed of council bosses who have emerged following the recent reorganisation of Northern Ireland’s council structure. She’s placing business at the heart of her plans for the future of their area, both from an economic and social point of view.

versed in the workings of such a large organisation and the need to manage a wide range of relationships in the political, public sector, business and consumer arena.

And she’s in no doubt how important those relationships are.

“This is a time when the elected members, the officers and the various stakeholders of Belfast all need to work together for the good of the people of the city, the council and its employees.”

A native of the city, she was appointed to the top job in April 2015 having previously been Director of Health and Environmental Services.

“I have been responsible in recent years for a leading a number of partnerships aimed at making Belfast a safer, healthier, more vibrant and sustainable city.

At that stage she had already completed 25-years’ service at the council so is well

“I am passionate about my home city of Belfast and am committed to dealing

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with some of our long-standing issues such as health inequalities and community cohesion.”

The latter points are ones which you would normally associate with a council boss but Ms Wylie has also made it clear that economic growth is a key pillar to the city’s future.

As well as taking a lead role in putting Belfast on the map for international property investors at recent MIPIM conferences, she is also behind a key bid with Westminster which is expected to a “game-changing” for the city’s economy.

LEADERS IN BUSINESS

She presented the City Growth Deal – an action plan to support the council’s already ambitious plans of boosting the economy, creating jobs and ensuring economic growth reaches all areas, including disadvantaged communities – to the House of Commons along with a posse of political representatives.

And Ms Wylie is confident that Belfast has the potential to shine.

“Belfast has always had distinguished history as a pioneering city – it now needs to take its

JANUARY 2017

place as a modern, international city that can successfully compete with others in global trade networks,” she said.

“Just like Manchester and Glasgow, we need to champion Belfast to have more powers to grow and prosper, to attract investors whilst also improving the lives of everyone in the city.

“Belfast certainly has the assets, the opportunity and the political will to implement a radical agenda for change that will transform the lives of both those who live

within the city and further afield, but I am highly confident, given the high calibre of our elected members, our staff, the stakeholders and the people of Belfast, that we can successfully work together in partnership to meet the challenge and grow the city as a great place to invest, work, live and visit in the years ahead.”

She has a rather lengthy to-do list, but there is little doubt that Belfast, and Northern Ireland’s, economic future looks brighter with Ms Wylie at the helm of Belfast City Council. ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Davey Hill and Alan McCulla Sea Source

T

o have profiled just one of the two livewires behind what can only be described as the reignition of the marine economy in Kilkeel and the surrounding district would have been only half the story.

to the fishermen and women who caught it,” Alan McCulla, who is in charge of the seafood side of the business, said. “The more we can do to make the industry more economically sustainable for our members the better.”

We chose to focus on both Davey Hill and Alan McCulla because together they have breathed new life into an age-old industry and put realistic plans in place to turn the area into a fishing and offshore services hub of global significance.

Furthering that aim is a well-rounded proposal to extend the harbour in Kilkeel, a move which would allow large vessels to dock there.

That will be quite an achievement, particularly in an industry which has faced so many challenges over the years.

Sea Source, the organisation which employs both men, is the brand name for the collective known as the Anglo North Irish Fish Producers Organisation (ANIFPO).

Established in 1984, the members’ organisation was set up to manage the quotas of a fishing fleet of more than 50 vessels and to maximise the value of the landed catch at Ardglass, Annalong, Kilkeel and Portavogie.

By 2007 it grew to include a fish sales division, quickly adding a processing plant, a move which has allowed its members to catch, sell and process their own fish or shellfish under the Sea Source name.

“It means we’re adding value to the product and ultimately getting more money back

JANUARY 2017

At present there are some vessels owned by Kilkeel fishermen which are too big to land in the town and their owners are forced to head for harbours in Scotland or even Denmark.

An extended harbour would mean that fish would be landed in the town, processed there sold with Northern Ireland provenance as far afield as Japan and add to the local economy.

“Kilkeel is on the brink of a new era in which fishing and offshore work combine to create a wealth of industrial activity which will reignite the marine economy,” Alan said.

The industrial activity he refers to is the other major string to Sea Source’s bow, one which Davey Hill manages.

It involves the diversification of vessels to work in the offshore energy sector, servicing wind turbines and other marine energy technology as part of the Anglo North Irish Offshore Energy Services Ltd, or Sea Source Offshore.

It has undertaken a number contracts which have included the deployment of 11 vessels to lay a communication cable between between Wales and Ireland and work for Danish wind turbine company DONG Energy.

“We’ve put a lot of work in behind the scenes, upskilling both the boats and crew, making sure all safety measures are in place and that we’re ready to work with the energy companies,” Davey said. “But it was all worth it.

“We can now harvest a living not just from fishing but from diversifying as well. We’ve even trained people up to become marine mammal observers, an initiative of our own.”

With such an innovative approach to the marine industry – one which also includes supply businesses such as marine mechanics, fish processing, a skills and training centre and other related activities – it’s no wonder that Alan McCulla reckons an extended harbour could create 1,000 jobs for the region.

“In the Irish Sea basin, there are many competitor ports along the south west coast of Scotland, the west coasts of England and Wales and the Republic of Ireland yet Kilkeel stands out as the most forward-thinking and ambitious of them all. This position needs to be consolidated and Kilkeel must be upgraded to make it for purpose for the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead.” ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

June Burgess Inner Horsepower

“A

nd then I decided to build a hotel.”

Some of the most interesting people to interview in the business world are those who have had a career which has followed a less-travelled path, or take diversions at various stages into unexpected territories.

A good example is June Burgess, an entrepreneur who has been a landscape architect, a property developer, a world-class equestrian, an executive coach and, as the opening quote suggests, a hotelier.

If forced to pick, it’s her latest venture – Inner Horsepower – which is the most diverse and one which Ulster Business wants to know more about first of all.

Delve a little deeper and it’s clear that business and personal development coaching using horses as the conduit makes perfect sense.

“There is a great deal to be learnt from the way horses move in a herd,” June told Ulster Business. “Leadership is moving to a much more collaborative structure where it’s key to get everybody working together for the good of the team.

issues faced by professional people in work or in their personal lives - from leadership to motivation to career development – and involve participants working directly with June’s 12 horses and have proved hugely popular.

From an equestrian point of view, June’s credentials are impressive having competed internationally in three-day eventing across the Republic, UK and Europe and obviously a horse fanatic.

“My priority throughout my career has been the horses,” she said. “I have always worked to live and even in the early days my top concern was being able to do the things I wanted to do; that has meant making sure there was always time for riding.”

It can’t have been easy with a career schedule which packs a lot of achievements into a relatively short period of time, one which started in the world of landscape architecture.

For starters there is Clarendon Dock, the very development where this article is written and where June came for this interview, partly to check in on landscaping which she had installed in her role at BDP when the site was developed in the 90s.

“The structure of the herd demonstrates that really well, from changing positions within the herd, how they react to change, crisis management and how they ‘get back to grazing’ really quickly and don’t hold grudges.”

She is able to reveal which type of stone the cobbles outside Ulster Business towers are cut from, remembers bringing in the trees which line the complex from Holland and, more importantly, meeting her husband on the project.

The courses, already commonplace in the US and Europe, address the full gamut of

When that project ended, June set up her own landscape architecture company carrying

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out work across Northern Ireland and in England.

At the same time, she was competing at the highest level on horseback, running Ballygraffin Horse Trials (an annual event of 5,000 people which was televised on Sky for four consecutive years), acted as chief executive of Tyrone Crystal and was involved in property investment.

It was through the latter venture that the decision to build a hotel came about.

June owned the site on the corner of Great Victoria Street and Grosvenor Road and running it as a car park, but and had looked at a number of options for development before making the decision to build a hotel.

The Fitzwilliam opened in 2008 - an inauspicious time in financial history - and shortly after this reporter sat down to interview June who had been intimately involved in the building’s development and despite the prevailing economic wind, made sure the venture was a success.

“We got through it but because we made sure we were making the right decisions as we went along. I’m very big on holding on to the overriding vision, focusing on it and not getting side tracked.”

That focus obviously worked and June sold the hotel last year.

She’s now putting her energies into Inner Horsepower where she’s combining her passion for horses and her experience of business gained throughout her career.

That’s a heady cocktail and one which is sure to prove as successful. ■

LEADERS IN BUSINESS

JANUARY 2017

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Ciaran and Stephen Devine Founders of Evermore Energy

T

ake a look at these two faces and remember them. The two unassuming north west brothers are creating hundreds of jobs, raising finance, driving the economy and helping wean Northern Ireland off fossil fuels.

In their 20s they were working on their first project, a renewable heat plant in Londonderry Harbour and Port which runs off wood chips and produces enough electricity to supply 25,000 homes and by the time Stephen - the elder by two years - was 30 in 2013 they had raised the £81m needed to fund the project.

Around 250 jobs were created during its construction and 20 full time posts to run the plant.

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That’s quite an undertaking and one which would have deterred lesser men, but not the Devine brothers.

“At the time we were looking to start the business, property was crashing and people around us were moving away,” Ciaran told Ulster Business. “We decided to create a project in the north west which would give us a reason to stay here in Northern Ireland.”

And that they did, taking the lead from Stephen’s experience working in the renewables sector for KPMG. “We realised that Northern Ireland was actually doing really well when it came to wind generation but trailing behind when it

came to renewable energy from non-wind sources.”

A closer inspection of other renewables followed with the duo eventually settling on biomass and going to see an operational plant run by Danish company BWSC which gave them food for thought.

Although it ran on virgin wood, the key to the Devine brothers’ plan was being able to use recycled woodchip to run their plant and it wasn’t long before they had partnered with BWSC with a 15-year agreement for the Danish company to build and run the plant.

They then found the site at Lisahally – one which allowed easy import of woodchip

LEADERS IN BUSINESS

either from Northern Ireland or by boat from further afield and was also next to Coolkeeragh power station for easy export of electricity - agreed a 15-year supply deal with Stobart Renewables – part of the Eddie Stobart haulage firm – and a 15-year power purchase agreement with Power NI.

“We really wanted to develop another project in Northern Ireland and knew that after 2020 the ageing power stations here would be reaching the end of their lives. There was a huge opportunity to build a state-of-the-art power station which is hugely efficient using combined cycle gas turbine technology.”

Even with those agreements in place it still took a year to raise the money to fund the project but it’s now up and running, 50% on woodchip from Northern Ireland which would normally be sent to landfill.

With the idea crystallized, a site in Belfast Harbour next door to Bombardier was found and an agreement signed with Siemens to develop the technology.

But there was barely time to rest on their laurels before the duo came up with their next plan, this time a gas power station in Belfast.

JANUARY 2017

They’re now in the process of raising the £280m needed to fund the project, one which is expected to supply 50% of Northern Ireland’s total electricity needs when it’s completed in 2021/22.

Ciaran said it will create 700 jobs during its construction and 50 highly-skilled engineering jobs once up and running.

“Northern Ireland has a looming energy crisis so we wanted to make an investment that addresses that and focuses on efficient generation.”

Initial investment for the project has already been secured from Belfast-based Crescent Capital and Ciaran and Stephen are working on the remainder.

Given their previous experience in the area, it won’t be long before the first sod is cut on this latest power plant, one that will probably lead to many more. ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Angela McGowan Regional Director of CBI

A

s one of the most important driving forces of the business world in Northern Ireland, Angela McGowan is a busy woman.

She has policy to communicate to government and media, CBI members to glean opinion, direction and evidence from and a number of key areas to address in the Northern Ireland economy.

But she’s taking in all in her stride and seems to relish being in the driving seat.

“The current economic environment is extremely challenging and if anyone is going to be pointing it the right direction then I’d like to be doing it myself,” she told Ulster Business.

And no better person to do just that.

The former Danske Bank chief economist has a deep understanding of what makes the economy here tick, having explored all aspects of it in her career so far.

Having graduated in economics from Queens, she worked as a research associate in the economics department of the university before spending a number of years working in economic policy institutes on issues such as competitiveness in a variety of policy areas.

we have a great team and fantastic members who give me great heart in the Northern Ireland economy. They’re very much about putting their heads down, trying to create jobs and raise the living standards of everyone in Northern Ireland.”

These latter points are ones she feels the business world here doesn’t get enough credit for.

“Sometimes the private sector is undervalued and doesn’t get the reputation it deserves in terms of the amount of tax revenue which it generates which goes into schools and hospitals, as well as giving people jobs and a purpose in life.”

Under Angela’s leadership, that’s going to change, not just for the present generation but for generations in the future.

“I want to grow the Northern Ireland economy and make it an economic success, not just for us but for my children’s’ generation to make sure they are proud of a Northern Ireland which gives them opportunities which make them want to stay here.”

From there she joined Danske Bank where she kept a close eye on the local and global economy while also getting out and about to meeting clients of the bank and the people behind the businesses.

To do that takes a partnership with government, one which understands the business world.

“We have to to work with the policy makers and politicians to help them understand where the big bottlenecks are for business and how they can help it to be more productive and create more jobs.

“When the CBI job came along it seemed like a natural fit. I’m really enjoying it because

“The Executive and CBI are after the same goal. It’s good for everyone to make the

JANUARY 2017

business world work.”

When it comes to Brexit, Angela, who, even before joining the CBI was against leaving the European Union, is pragmatic.

“We are where we are and we have to make the best of it. I’ll be content to see the Executive working together to make sure Northern Ireland gets the best deal in the upcoming negotiations.

“It’s disappointing when you go out and meet businesses who just want to grow but face challenges which have been created by political circumstance, but you can’t separate economics from politics. Around 82% of CBI members didn’t want to leave the EU but business faces challenges all the time and this is just another one.”

So where does she see the Northern Ireland economy in five years’ time?

“We have a vision of for a knowledgeintensive economy with high levels of productivity which is globally competitive, one that’s able to generate new sectors, new industries, new firms and with a lot of linkages to universities and other education establishments. I’m hoping we still have access to to European markets and we’re still developing strong collaboration with neighbours in the Republic as well as developing east/west links between the US and GB. That’s quite a wishlist, but one which Angela won’t have any trouble achieving if past experience is anything to judge by. ■

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We do more. Better.

As Northern Ireland’s top law firm, we lead the way.

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12/12/2016 14:30

Fusion programme a £500k hit with InterTradeIreland

Anne Clydesdale, Director William J Clinton Leadership Institute, and Thomas Hunter Magowan, CE InterTrade Ireland.

T

he William J Clinton Leadership Institute, together with Queen’s Management School, have announced the renewal of a contract worth £500k with InterTradeIreland for the next five years.

The deal relates to the Fusion programme, a technology transfer programme which operates on an all-island basis.

The contract is for the provision of a Postgraduate Diploma in Business and Management for 250+ participants which will be delivered at Riddel Hall, Belfast and in Drogheda.

One of InterTradeIreland’s most successful programmes to date, FUSION enables SMEs to employ science, engineering and technology graduates for a 12-to-18 month period to create and develop technologically-innovative and commercially-viable projects and services.

The graduate benefits by gaining significant management experience and a fully-funded

Postgraduate Diploma in Business and Management.

The company is also partnered with a third level institution to gain access to the specialist expertise they need, facilitating a three way cross-border partnership.

Anne Clydesdale, Director of the William J Clinton Leadership Institute, welcomed the deal.

“The Institute is delighted to have been reappointed to deliver the PG Diploma for the highly innovative and effective FUSION programme, which gives science and technical graduates the chance to work in industry and to undertake a business focused postgraduate diploma at the Institute at Queen’s University, Belfast.”

The first contract was awarded to the Leadership Institute and QMS in 2012 and since then the Institute has successfully delivered a PG Diploma in Business and Management for 250 PG students, accredited by QMS.

From 2017, QMS and the Leadership Institute will offer a MSc in Business and Management giving alumni and any future participants in the InterTradeIreland FUSION programme the opportunity to upgrade their accreditation by undertaking a research dissertation.

Thomas Hunter Magowan, Chief Executive of InterTradeIreland, said graduates are key to economic success.

“InterTradeIreland recognises the business and economic contribution that graduates have and can continue to make in the future. FUSION brings graduates and industry together, with graduates skills delivering new creativity, new innovations and overall new ideas in a business.

“InterTradeIreland is very pleased to be working again alongside The William J Clinton Leadership Institute together with Queen’s Management School and recognise the critical role they continue to play in contributing to making FUSION successful.” ■

We work in partnership with independent retailers and foodservice professionals across Northern Ireland to help them grow their sales and deliver a profitable business for them, their families and their communities.

Investing in local business...

£60M investment in our store refresh programme

Investing in local jobs...

More than 6,000 people are employed by Musgrave NI and our independent retailers

Investing in local produce...

Our stores sell more than £200M of local produce and 75% of all our fresh ranges are sourced locally

Investing in local communities...

£2.5M raised to date for local charity Action Cancer and a target of £160k for Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke

The Specialists Leading Business Advisors “Excellent litigators who provide invaluable advice and have strong relationships with their clients.”

N

ot the words of Tughans’ dispute resolution team themselves, but those of a long-term client in this year’s Chambers UK legal directory about the largest team of its type in Northern Ireland.

That’s quite an endorsement, and one which needs teased out from the four senior partners who head bespoke areas of the firm’s dispute resolution practice.

They include Managing Partner Patrick Brown, a recognised market leader in public and procurement law, along with partners Toby McMurray a top insolvency solicitor, Michael McCord a Band 1 ranked litigator who is described as “meticulous and methodical”, and Kathy McGillie an insurance law expert.

In the world this quartet occupies, there are few to match their experience, depth of knowledge and judgement, each in their own individual, yet complimentary specialisms.

Take Patrick, who became Managing Partner last year. He has acted in some of the leading procurement cases and applications for

Judicial Review in Northern Ireland, and acted in the first cases in Northern Ireland to be referred to the Charity Tribunal.

Toby heads the insolvency and business recovery team. Much of his work in insolvency is highly contentious, and he has been involved in many of the landmark cases in this jurisdiction in recent years, including the precedent-setting and multi-jurisdictional Quinn litigation.

Michael is head of the commercial litigation team and is widely recognised throughout Northern Ireland as a market-leading commercial litigator. He is ranked Band 1 in Chambers UK in three separate litigationbased practice areas: litigation; construction; and real estate litigation.

Kathy leads the insurance team and is an expert in occupational disease, catastrophic injury, professional risks and policy coverage disputes acting for insurers. She is also a specialist in managing complex litigation arising from alleged breaches of the full range of health & safety legislation. Her team is constantly ranked Band 1 in Chambers UK.

“Our dispute resolution offering has been tailored to support the requirements of our clients, which range from home-grown companies to international PLCs to local government and public bodies,” Patrick said.

“The needs of these clients differ widely, so it is essential to have depth of experience within our department to service their specialist requirements. This depth of offering is one of our key strengths.

“Not only can we provide a full dispute resolution solution, we can draw on the expertise we have across our firm as a whole, to offer clients a full service solution for all the challenges they may face.”

With 30 lawyers supported by legal executives and trainees, the disputes team has a breath of knowledge that can deal with the most complex and wide-ranging cases, and indeed those of an urgent nature.

“We increasingly find clients need issues dealt with as swiftly as possible and because of the resources we have available, we can respond immediately without diluting our service or quality,” remarked Toby.

Dispute Resolution Partners at Tughans Neil Cahill, Kathy McGillie, Toby McMurray, Patrick Brown, Michael McCord, Neil Smyth.

“We make sure issues don’t stall when they need to be dealt with quickly.

“When you’ve got the expertise and the number of professional staff we have, it means you can provide a top tier service to each and every client, at all times.”

That expertise can also mean there is no dispute to deal with, according to Michael.

“As disputes lawyers we form an integral part of the business advisory team for our clients, and the advice we give to a corporate

client might actually stave off litigation or adjudication at an early stage, saving them time and money. A dispute lawyer can be an extremely helpful and a positive adjunct to the advisory service we provide. Within our team we also have trained mediators who can provide alternative methods of dispute resolution, which is favoured by clients and increasing encouraged by the Courts.”

That close relationship with clients is central to the culture of the firm, Kathy said: “Tughans has always prided itself on the fact we really invest time to understand our

clients’, not just as a lawyer for discrete bits of work here and there, but as a trusted adviser. As a result, we build long-standing relationships with our clients and strategically align our business with their needs.”

All-in-all, it’s quite an offering.

A vastly experienced team, able to draw on a wealth of other specialities, who are embedded in their clients’ businesses and able to act as true advisor in any sector.

We teased it out eventually. ■

Paddy Doody

The retail road ahead 2

016 has been an interesting year in many ways - from Brexit to Trump and has left many wondering what is to come from 2017.

The retail sector has seen many changes and is set to bear the brunt of the next year as things start to change.

The Henderson Group are finishing 2016 on a high after a strong year of trading; looking back over the last year, there have been strong results for Wholesale and Retail shows like for like sales growth. Whilst there are competitors investing and doing good business, it’s fair to say that Henderson’s are making good progress with their sales strategy.

Looking back on 2016, Paddy Doody, Sales & Marketing Director at Henderson Wholesale, said: “It’s been an interesting year for everyone, not just the retail sector. Whilst it has been a fantastic year for us in terms of trading and growth, there have been a few bumps in

the road along the way for everyone.

“One major change in the retail sector has been the rising costs retailers face – in particular the increase in the minimum wage has made things more difficult for retailers, be they independent or company-owned stores.

When paired with automatic enrolment into the pension scheme, it’s fair to say that retailers are feeling the squeeze and will continue to tread carefully into 2017.”

Brexit has been the word on everyone’s lips since June and is likely to remain so throughout 2017 and beyond for the retail sector.

“Brexit is still years rather than months away but the impact on sterling versus the dollar and euro has been dramatic, with the pound dropping sharply.

“The cost of goods are set to increase over

the next number of months and as a whole, we are likely to see food price inflation come back with a bang in 2017. How these price increases and fluctuations are dealt with is something that will exercise us next year.

“A return to price inflation will make things more difficult for everyone and consumer confidence will take a hit. Shopping habits and spending are likely to change; though it will be interesting to see how,” says Paddy.

“The investments we’ve made in 2016, we will continue to make in 2017, including investments in price and the cost of goods, marketing and customer communications, and we will, as always, continue to focus on driving fresh foods and value for our retailers and customers.”

In addition, the Group will continue with its ambitious capital expenditure programme in shop refits, acquisitions and infrastructure improvements. ■

A year to remember

£200K investment by He Wholesale into The K nderson itchen

arly £70,000 for EUROS Raised ne P tner Cancer Fund for Ch AR’s r a p y t i r a ildren ch

eived 1-star status for Fresh recped within their ‘enjoy erson elo Hend roducts dev ion with local suppliers two p ge, in conjunct l’ ran loca

on Group went back to their enders The H market roots as part of the d & Drink Year of Foo

Henderson Wholesale won the ‘Was te ent Project’ Category a t the U Managem TV Business Eye Awards

over £33,000 for SPAR’s charity Raised partner NSPCC

Henderson Group, owners of the SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO, ViVOXtra and ViVO Essentials franchises in Northern Ireland have been distributing food and grocery-related products to convenience retail sector for over 100 years.

Now the largest operator of its kind in the country, the business is supplying over 400 stores and continues to grow.

The company currently employs more than 3,100 people, recently moved into a brand new office and opened 19 new stores in the last year – Definitely a cause for celebration!

www.henderson-group.com

WELLBEING

Five steps to wellbeing at work

A

s part of the local wellbeing charity Inspire - the new name for Niamh) - Gillian Morris head’s up their social enterprise division which encompasses Inspire Workplaces, Inspire Students and Inspire Knowledge & Leadership.

Gillian urges us all, as busy professionals, to make time in our working day to pursue the following steps to protect and enhance our own personal wellbeing.

These ‘five ways’ have been inspired by researched by the New Economics Foundation Give Participation in social and community life has attracted a lot of attention in the field of wellbeing research.

Individuals who report a greater interest in helping others are more likely to rate themselves as happy.

Research into actions for promoting happiness has shown that committing an act of kindness once a week over a six-week period is associated with an increase in wellbeing.

Be active Regular physical activity is associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety across all age groups.

Exercise is essential for slowing age-related cognitive decline and for promoting wellbeing.

But it doesn’t need to be particularly intense for you to feel good - slower-paced activities, such as walking, can have the benefit of encouraging social interactions as well providing some level of exercise.

Take notice Reminding yourself to ‘take notice’ can

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Gillian Morris

strengthen and broaden awareness.

Studies have shown that being aware of what is taking place in the present directly enhances your well-being and savouring ‘the moment’ can help to reaffirm your life priorities.

Heightened awareness also enhances yourselfunderstanding and allows you to make positive choices based on your own values and motivations.

Learn Continued learning through life enhances selfesteem and encourages social interaction and a more active life.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the opportunity to engage in work or educational activities particularly helps to lift older people out of depression. Why not learn something

new about a colleague or research something that has always interested you.

Connect There is strong evidence that indicates that feeling close to, and valued by, other people is a fundamental human need and one that contributes to functioning well in the world.

It’s clear that social relationships are critical for promoting wellbeing and for acting as a buffer against mental ill health.

With this in mind, try to do something different today and make a connection.

As little as five minutes each day following these simple five steps can make all the difference in enhancing your professional performance and resilience. Helping you to achieve that optimum work/life balance. ■

For further advice and information on how you can invest in your own wellbeing during 2017, visit www.inspirewellbeing.org/workplaces

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Survey: more than half of NI employees considering move in 2017

By John Moore, Regional Managing Director at Hays Northern Ireland

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The labour market over the next 12 months seems likely to become more fluid with a majority of respondents surveyed for the Hays UK Salary & Recruiting Trends 2017 guide in Northern Ireland saying they are actively planning to seek new roles in 2017.

Our latest guide canvassed opinion of over 200 employers and 460 employees across Northern Ireland as part of a wider UK poll of more than 17,000 employers and employees.

More than half of employees (57%) canvassed in our annual survey carried out ahead of the EU referendum vote - say they expect to move jobs in the next year. That’s slightly below the UK average of 62% prereferendum and 66% post-referendum.

It revealed that despite a turbulent political year, employers are confident about the long-term economic outlook, but their plans could be at risk if they are not able to retain their employees, who are feeling less certain, and dissatisfied with their pay and career prospects.

For example, more than half of employees in Northern Ireland (52%) believe they have no scope to progress within their organisation - in line with the national average - while 28% cite lack of future opportunities as their reason for wanting to leave.

The main reason given by employees for wanting to leave was salary and benefits (33%). Indeed, employees in Northern Ireland are less likely to be happy with their salary than those in the UK as a whole, with 61% saying they are unhappy, compared to 55% pre-referendum and 57% post-referendum in the rest of the UK. They are more likely to have asked for a pay rise at 30% (compared to pre-referendum UK average of 29%) and are also more likely to have been refused at 57% of those who asked, compared to the UK average of 52%.

The survey suggests that apparent skills shortages, coupled with employee dissatisfaction with salaries, have helped to inflate salary expectations amongst job-seekers and these can often be unrealistic.

While companies may not be in a position to increase salaries, they can do something about career progression and creating a working

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John Moore

environment that will entice employees to stay.

Meanwhile, employees shouldn’t just look at the bottom line but should weigh up the other benefits of a workplace - companies want employees who take a long-term view on their career, and view themselves as stakeholders within an organisation not employees whose main interest is short-termist and whose interest is focused primarily on the pay packet.

Now that we’re entering a new year, it is tempting for employees to take stock and consider what they want from their career. My advice would be to take some time away from the daily routine and put together your goals for 2017. Once those have been written down, ask yourself if it’s something you really want to do. Be absolutely clear about your motivations and the implications of a move. An incremental pay increase may offer short-term benefits but these need to be weighed up against how a move may advance your career, job satisfaction and overall work-life balance for the longer term. ■ For more information on Hays UK Salary & Recruiting Trends 2017 guide, visit hays.co.uk/salary-guide. To find out more about Hays Northern Ireland log on to hays.co.uk/ni or follow us on Twitter @ HaysN_Ireland

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Ones to Watch

The entrepreneurs on the up in the Northern Ireland economy

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ONES TO WATCH

Aaron Gibson Chief Executive of Hurree

By Amanda Ferguson

H

urree chief executive Aaron Gibson is a self-described “blue flame” who is more than happy to concentrate all his efforts on his business endeavours.

He knows what they say about ‘all work and no play...’ but for now the 23-year-old, who was born and bred in Dundrum just outside Newcastle in Co Down, is on a mission.

The young entrepreneur behind the Hurree marketing automation platform for apps wants to emulate the success of US company HubSpot and is quite content to focus on work.

“Hurree is designed to help app developers and marketers to really understand what their users are doing with the app and allows them to make more informed decision whenever they are marketing content out to their users,” he told Ulster Business.

Aaron Gibson

“We built it out and got some pretty steady growth. Ed-tech wasn’t something my heart was in, it was just something that I effectively wanted to cut my teeth on “We partnered with the guys who ended up buying the assets and got it built and it sold into quite a few schools in the US and GB.” On reaching the point where he wanted to try something different, aged 21 and with “X amount of pounds” in his bank account he had some breathing space to start Hurree.

“It has been incorporated for the last 18 months but we took our first round of funding in October 2015, started building out the platform pretty much from there and then launched in August of this year.”

Aaron’s typical day starts at around 5.30am.

He does a workout at the gym and then arrives at his office in Belfast’s Arthur Street to work alongside four marketers and three developers.

So where did it all start?

When he arrives home in the evening “the Mac Book is powered back up again”.Aaron admits he is a workaholic, even describing himself as “blue flame”.

Academia didn’t appeal to Aaron so he left the rural high school he attended age 16 feeling underwhelmed by the four career options he says he was essentially limited to - farming, fishing, the army or being a mechanic.

“All of those, they were never really of much interest to me,” he said.

He had a couple of different jobs, gathered up cash and then started his first tech company aged 18.

“It was educational technology and we sold the assets of it to a publishing house,” he said.

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business and wants to take on 10 new staff during the first half of 2017.

“It’s really growth funding,” he says. “The idea was that we want to bring in a community of developers and marketers to really become invested in the business.

“That will then take us were are able to further build out the product, the tech product, so we can’t stand still.”

Aaron wants to build his customer service and emulate one of the big players in the US, HubSpot.

“They do something similar to what we do, but for websites so we want to effectively take what we have been able to do there, grow ourselves and effectively build ourselves to be bought by those guys in three, four or five years time.

“It’s a discouraging term if someone tells you that you are not blue flame enough,” he says.

“That’s really our current aim over the next six months, get the money in and build out the product and start to branch out into the US marketplace.”

“You burn the hottest and brightest whenever you are a blue flame so what they categorise that as is no commitments, no mortgage, no family, no kids.

Aaron says the beauty of his business is that he can market globally without much infrastructure but he wants to emulate HubSpot in strategy in having localised offices.

“I wouldn’t change what I do for the world.”

“People know the culture of the users they are going to be dealing with and they can actually put their business practices into best practices as well,” he said. ■

Aaron is currently raising funds via the Crowdcube website in order to expand the

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ONES TO WATCH

Alex McGarry Bubbly Bar

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brand new ‘farmer’s wife’, a move to Limavady (or Limavegas as she calls it) and building their first home – the perfect time to start up a new business, surely? They say opportunity doesn’t always come at the opportune time, however it was the push Alex needed to take a step (or rather large leap) into the unknown and bring her Bubbly Bar to life. A background in PR and comms helped her to get off the ground and now she says she’s trying to figure out the web developing, accountancy, health and safety, IT, business development, payment systems…

In one sentence, what do you do?

Bubbly Bar is Northern Ireland’s first mobile champagne and prosecco bar, which provides a reception with a glass of class for our clients at their special occasion be it a corporate event, wedding or party.

Why is there a need for what you do and who are your customers?

I experienced something similar at events in England and thought it was a brilliant idea.

When I tried to book one at home for an event I couldn’t find a single one on the island of Ireland! The rise in the popularity of prosecco has been incredible and others, like me, get excited when they spy a glass awaiting them at a party. Our customer range is diverse from corporate clients to brides and surprise party planners.

Alex McGarry

There is something quite special about being involved in someone’s long awaited event. In most cases we are the welcoming party and have the pleasure of greeting guests with a glass of fizz – I love the reaction Bubbly Bar receives, particularly from ladies, who immediately try and think of an occasion they can book us for – a brilliant feeling!

What makes you better than what’s already out there?

Bubbly Bar is unique in that it is the only one in Northern Ireland, however what attracts customers to Bubbly Bar is the professional quality, uniqueness, freshness, great staff, friendly and efficient delivery. It goes hand in hand with being at the top of every event checklist.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve come up against so far?

There have been plenty of challenges along the way and a great deal of learning all round.

On the physical front lay the challenge of the dreaded yet essential ‘trailer test’. To literally get the Bubbly Bar wheels in motion I had to successfully navigate a practical trailer test so I could legally and safely tow the bar trailer to events. A stressful - but exhilarating, liberating and proud experience all rolled into one!

What excites you most about what you do?

What would help you kick on to the next level?

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Alcohol licencing legislation in Northern Ireland is particularly stringent when compared to the rest of the UK. A bit more freedom on how we can operate would really open up opportunities.

What do you ultimately want to achieve?

I want to develop and grow Bubbly Bar so that the reach extends throughout the island of Ireland. Building a regular client list is essential to achieving this and we are delighted to have repeat business from clients and bookings right through to 2019.

Who inspires you in business?

There are so many, from Michelle Mone for her unwavering strength and not taking ‘no’ for an answer, to local businesswoman Leona Kane from Broighter Gold for her successful diversification of the family farm and bringing a fantastic local product to the market. Also my mum, who has never let anything get in the way of a good idea! ■

Peter Johnston

Wilsons Auctions focused on growth in 2017 A uctioneering is a fast paced, exhilarating industry and for Wilsons Auctions it’s a business that has evolved over 80 years. Growing from agricultural machinery in 1936 to Lamborghinis and luxury goods in 2017, it is now the largest independent auction company in the UK and Ireland.

manage the asset realisation process of a number of law enforcement and government agencies as well as dedicated on-site auctions.

The family-owned business was formed by William J Wilson and has since flourished with son Ian C Wilson taking charge as Managing Director in 1976.

Wilsons Auctions now operates from a total of 16 sites including branches in Belfast, Portadown, Dublin, Dalry, Telford, Queensferry, Newcastle-UponTyne and Maidstone and currently employs over 300 people.

Already working with a number of government agencies the company has paid in excess of £80m back into the public purse from the proceeds of asset recovery over recent years.

This year Wilsons Auctions is preparing for further business growth across its branches, as a direct result of its success in 2016 which not only saw the company mark its 80th anniversary, but acquire two new sites in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Maidstone, win significant tenders and gain recognition across various industry awards.

With its innovative approach, offering industry leading facilities and services and a focus on meeting or exceeding the changing needs of customers, Wilsons Auctions is in a strong position for continued growth.

Last year, the company secured 13 major tenders to

One multi-agency contract alone is worth in excess of £25m and will allow Wilsons Auctions to expand its work force, creating 25 new jobs across the group.

year and with its website www.wilsonsauctions. com ranked in the top quarter of the top million websites visited in the world, Wilsons Auctions has a global marketplace with thousands of regular online bidders making use of its LiveBid facility worldwide.

With the ability to auction anything, anywhere, from cars and jewellery to land and property, plant and machinery as well as prestige, specialist items and having the expert knowledge of skilled staff across the auction business, Wilsons Auctions is confident 2017 will be another successful year for the company. ■

Achieving platinum status at the Deloitte Best Managed Companies Award, having retained the status for seven consecutive years, as well as being the only company in Northern Ireland to be named a UK Champion in the European Business Awards, has helped Wilsons Auctions stand apart from its competition.

DALRY

NEWCASTLE

BELFAST PORTADOWN

Other recognition the auction company feels is important to build on in 2017 includes being awarded at the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ireland Awards and named a finalist at the Turnaround, Restructuring and Insolvency Awards, UTV Business Eye Awards as well as retaining its ISO accreditation in Quality, Environment and Health & Safety Management.

Wilsons Auctions hosts over 1,000 auctions annually, processing a hammer total in excess of £250m each

BOLTON DUBLIN 1 DUBLIN 2

WIDNES

IMMINGHAM

QUEENSFERRY TELFORD BIRMINGHAM STRATFORD BRIDGEND MAIDSTONE DOVER

www.wilsonsauctions.com NORTHERN IRELAND | REPUBLIC OF IRELAND | SCOTLAND | ENGLAND | WALES

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ONES TO WATCH

Kain Craigs The Iconic Golf Group

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ain was born and raised in Hong Kong, but has always considered Belfast his hometown. He attended Campbell College from the age of 12 before studying Business and Finance at Durham University.

After graduating, Kain studied in Beijing before working in London for a consultancy group. After three years, Kain elected to come back to Belfast where he started the Iconic Golf Group and is now managing an investment opportunity to deliver a new golf development facility.

In one sentence, what do you do?

I connect business interests between the island of Ireland and Asia by showcasing the best of Irish life and golf.

Why is there a need for what you do and who are your customers?

China represents the world’s largest outbound travel market with 100m overseas visits made per year, attracting even a tiny fraction of this market has the potential to deliver vast benefits from job creation to foreign direct investment. Last year, New Zealand hosted five times more Chinese tourists than the Ireland of Island, despite Belfast being closer to Beijing than Auckland.

Northern Ireland is world class in many ways, but sometimes shy or constrained to show off its unique visitor economy attributes.

Our clients vary. Typically it’s Asian business people visiting London, willing to fly the extra hour to walk the fabled fairways in the footsteps of Fred Daly and Rory McIlroy.

We also host location managers scouting new sites for Chinese movies and television shows.

What makes you better than the competition?

My 13 years in Hong Kong and China gave me a deep insight into local customs and service level expectations. Consequently IGG’s attention to detail, focus on authentic

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Kain Craigs with Yutaka Kawanami from Tokyo

experiences and our empathetic attitude is what sets us apart.

What excites you most about what you do?

It’s the ever-changing environment, travel and the new people I engage with. I couldn’t do the same thing day-in, day-out. I also get to be a part of a lot of great programmes like being a Mentor for Young Enterprise which sparked my interest in writing my first business plan when I was 17. Global Shapers is also a fantastic network which connects 450 hubs globally through the World Economic Forum.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve come up against so far?

We had to coordinate 80 film crew, 10 VIP’s and five supermodels for three weeks last year which really tested us. We arranged everything from flights to feeding them. A lot of sleepless nights went into that, but it was

well worth it when the three-hour production was broadcast to 290 million people in China.

What would help you kick on to the next level?

We are looking to raise £2.3m for a new golf venture that we want to see not only here in Ireland but across Europe and Asia. I can’t say much more than that publicly, but get in touch if you want to find out more.

The Entrepreneurial Spark programme here in Belfast has been a great help getting us investor ready.

Who inspires you in business?

Tim Ferriss was a real motivation for me when starting my own business, his ethos is about working smart and understanding the outcomes of your efforts. Pareto’s law is ubiquitous and as soon as you can identify the 20% of your work that delivers 80% of the results you’re on the right path. ■

Continuous Commitment As a client of Caulfield Corporate you will form a relationship with our company and we will be a long term partner for your business. That is why we put a premium on getting to know you and your organisation.

We put your needs first and we will always keep it that way.

Insurance & Risk Advisors

Caulfield Corporate 162 Lisburn Road Belfast BT9 6AL T: 028 9066 1999 F: 028 9066 3560 caulfieldcorporate.com

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ONES TO WATCH

Martin Symington

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anted.Coffee, a brand which is pioneering micro-lot coffee in the UK and Ireland, introduces consumers to the world’s finest coffee beans to be enjoyed in the comfort of their own homes and savoured outside the home. The Wanted.Coffee Proposition is simple: in a world overflowing with average, the most unusual, the most unique, the best is always the most wanted. The combination of good coffee, delivered as whole bean or in ground format and personalised customer service deliver moments of pure indulgence.

Headquartered in Lisburn, Northern Ireland with more than 10 employees, Wanted.Coffee sells products directly to its customers and has ambitious plans to move to a global platform within two years.

Martin Symington Master Roaster at Wanted.Coffee customers are coffee lovers from around the world.

to deliver what we believe to be exceptional coffees.

What makes you better than what’s already out there?

We are passionate and believe in sustainability and to use the old adage; retail is detail.

What would help you kick on to the next level?

Exposure to much larger markets, for example, UK and Europe.

In one sentence, what do you do?

Create exceptional, unique coffees.

What excites you most about what you do?

Developing an idea and working with the team to create an exceptional brand.

What do you ultimately want to achieve?

To allow as many people as possible to enjoy the pleasure that coffee brings.

Why is there a need for what you do and who are your customers?

The coffee market is evolving and demand for outstanding coffee continues to increase. Our

What are the biggest challenges you’ve come up against so far?

We have invested a lot of time in sourcing and cupping coffees from around the world

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Who inspires you in business?

Sir Anthony Joseph Francis “Tony” O’Reilly (born 7 May 1936, Dublin, Ireland). Tony is a former Irish businessman and international rugby union player. ■

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ONES TO WATCH

Ritu Bhatt iEngageIT

By Amy Leonard

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hen Ritu first arrived in Belfast with her family, she intended to stay six months. Fast forward nearly 10 years and not only is she still here but she has set up and is running her own immediately successful business.

So how did plans change so drastically? How did she find herself in Northern Ireland, and such success with it?

Ritu, 38, is originally from Mumbai, where she grew up and was schooled. She went to Savitribai Phule Pune University, formerly the University of Pune, to study a Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics. In the final year of her studies, the students were sent to complete a professional project in tech work places. Ritu was placed at Siemens, one of the leading corporations in the electronics field. It was here that she says her career began.

“I helped to develop a 16 channel output relay module. A micro controller for Siemens was where I learnt Step Five, I think that’s what they called it. It was so long ago and seems even longer since someone asked me!”

For those that don’t speak tech, Step Five is a coding language and the 16 channel output relay module is a micro processor, apparently.

The family moved to Belfast in 2007 for the sole reason that Ritu’s husband Manish, who worked for BT in India, was transferred here.

“At the time we had a small daughter; it was only meant to be for six months, but look at us now, still here!” says Ritu, explaining that they fell for Belfast.

“We loved it here. The people were straight away welcoming and helpful. Our daughter got very well settled in school and we never thought of going back.”

That small daughter, Aditi, is now 12 and they also have a son Jay who is five.

JANUARY 2017

Ritu Bhatt

Ritu herself began to work as a consultant programmer. She held a number of senior posts in IT before deciding to build her own business, and iEngageIT was born.

This leap was taken not just so she could be her own boss, have her name on the door, or anything else so self-serving.

“I have had a long career as a tech team member” says Ritu, “from junior coder right through to technical leader. What always stood out to me was the lack of females in the tech teams.”

She noticed a pattern that yes there may be some women in HR or other departments, but time and time again she joined a male-only team.

“I started this business on my own, from scratch, to inspire young girls in schools and colleges. It gives me the flexibility to go into these places of education and talk about tech, and hopefully, slowly, each step at a time we’ll make changes.”

Her daughter Aditi and friends are already showing great interest, something which means a great deal to Ritu.

“There have been so many instances of great feedback from the talks. I even personally keep in touch with the girls and have them into the business as interns. It’s why I started iEngageIT.”

“I asked myself why? Was it a local problem?

But unfortunately not, it is a worldwide issue.”

Only founded in 2016, the first year of trading has gone extremely well. Ritu was a finalist for two awards at Women in Business NI Awards 2016, “Best New Start Up” and “Excellence in IT”, competing against other well established companies.

And so the idea for having her own business stemmed from a desire to encourage more gender equality in the profession.

“It’s been nothing short of a dream start for us”, says Ritu. It seems it was a stroke of fate that brought her to Northern Ireland. ■

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ONES TO WATCH

Sinead Murphy Shnuggle

By Amy Leonard

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creaky Moses basket leading not just to a new career but a whole new way of life; who’d have guessed it?

Sinead Murphy pictured with husband Adam picking up another award for Schnuggle

Not many, but then not many are brave enough to challenge the norm, to create the change they want. Not many are like Sinead Murphy.

The winner of the Women in Business NI ‘Best Exporter’ Award 2016 and ‘Best Small Business’ 2015, could have still been working in debt services if she had merely accepted the nightly noise as another part of parenthood.

But she did not, and now there are parents worldwide who are no doubt glad she didn’t. The business that stemmed from this seemingly small issue is Shnuggle, which designs and produces what they call Clever Baby Products and now exports to retailers in over 25 countries.

Sinead, from Belfast, met her husband Adam, from Peterborough, at university in Hertfordshire where she studied psychology and he engineering. They married nearly 12 years ago and now have three children. Rose is nine and has Down Syndrome, Liam is seven, and Ruby May is two and a half.

“The traditional Moses basket was really creaky. Rose was often sick as a baby and it made a racket every time she moved” Sinead explains, “and the basket was always on my side of the bed!”

While she can laugh about it now it was extremely impractical, especially for new parents whose sleep patterns were already off kilter. She also found it very hard to clean; not exactly ideal for your darling little bundle of joy.

They realised that it was something that had never been reinvented, so Adam mocked up

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their prototype on CAD and they took out a personal loan to buy the tools to make their first product.

“It was a risky move, yes, but we wanted to prove the concept to ourselves, to know it would work, before going any further with it” says Sinead.

The business was officially registered in 2009 and John Lewis was one of their first and, still, most significant retailers. So not a bad start to things then.

At least on paper that is. Immediate interest, whilst encouraging and positive, made life a little hectic.

Sinead had been working full time managing debt for not-for-profit organisations, specifically the Citizens Advice Bureau. Adam also worked full time in product design. Both continued to do so for the first two to three years of Shnuggle. And don’t forget they had two young children by now.

The pair would complete their full working day, come home and look after the kids and only once they had them settled in bed was it

time to get stuck into packing the orders.

Sinead herself was the very first full time member of Shnuggle and it was then that the huge growth happened with the help of Invest NI and private investors.

There has been a lot of personal growth in the process says Sinead: “We were two people used to working full time, but for other people, in other people’s companies.

It’s been a steep learning curve; we’ve learnt everything from the ground up.”

And the most personally valuable thing about running the business? “We get to use our own experience as parents, which means we completely understand our customer.

Everything from price to appearance to functionality plays a crucial role in how we make our products.”

It sounds like what they themselves were once wishing to buy, practical, stylish and modern baby products, are finally available, from their very own company.

You know the old saying, if you want something done right, do it yourself. ■

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Emma Walsh The Original Hairbus Company

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mma Walsh’s passion for hairdressing started when she was seven years old and never left her. She got her first job in a salon age 15 and from there on studied at college gaining all the qualifications available in her field. Over the next 18 years she managed various salons and in 2007 went into a partnership to open a successful salon on the Lisburn Road, while also teaching part time at Belfast Met for three years. In 2015 she decided to take a leap and stand on her own two feet with The Original Hairbus Company which has now been up and running for a year.

Emma Walsh

In one sentence, what do you do?

I run a unique and professional barbering service, creating a luxurious space at your place of work offering an online booking system which provides convenience and ease when it is needed the most.

Why is there a need for what you do and who are your customers?

Life continues to become busier than ever, which leaves us less time for the things we enjoy. Long barbershop queues waste precious weekend time and I am targeting busy professionals and anyone who loves something that a little quirky.

What makes you better than that which is already out there?

We provide an online booking system where our customers can pre book and pay prior to their appointment before we arrive at their place of work. We have also expanded into the wedding market bringing the groom’s party the very best in wedding day preparation on the morning of their wedding, the only company providing such a service.

What excites you most about what you do?

I have thoroughly enjoyed developing my business from an idea to where I am today,

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and am excited about the prospect of taking it to the next level. I am a very social person, so meeting people brings me endless joy and I love the reaction the bus receives when people step on. Their enthusiasm fills me with pride.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve come up against so far?

Bringing the business from concept to reality was a huge challenge, as was sourcing the vehicle, figuring out the best materials to withstand the elements and motion, designing the interior, making sure it provided nothing less than you would expect from a salon and proving the concept would benefit the market. However, after six months in business I was faced with my biggest challenge yet. Criminal damage put everything on hold for 10 weeks until insurance and repairs were completed. It took

a lot of courage and stamina to keep going, but has brought me back stronger than ever.

What would help you kick on to the next level?

I am currently looking to grow the team and hope to take on a second bus. For this I may look into joining in partnership with others or may look for investment.

What do you ultimately want to achieve?

My aim is to have several buses and to make the Hairbus Company a brand recognised for its style, quality and efficiency throughout the UK. Who inspires you in business?

I am inspired by those who have a passion in life and turn it into their career, the gogetters that will stop at nothing to achieve true happiness in their daily lives. ■

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Alan Lowry Environmental Street Furniture

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nvironmental Street Furniture (ESF) design and supply a huge selection of exterior street furniture products globally, including custom bespoke products for the experience attraction industry. The County Antrim company is also at the forefront of innovation in street furniture, offering a range of solar powered products including mobile phone charging stations and benches, illuminated litter bins using LED lighting, and solar LED wayfinding lighting. Over the past 12 months ESF has seen significant growth at both home and abroad with the completion of a range of projects including prestigious contracts with the Royal National Theatre, London, street improvements in Clonakilty, Cork and providing bespoke products for some of the biggest theme parks in the world. ESF currently has a presence in Europe, USA, Middle East and Australia.

Alan Lowry

In one sentence, what do you do?

As a passionate managing director of a team, I seek to inspire, serve and direct our partners, clients and customers by offering the most innovative, creative and sustainable outdoor furniture globally.

Why is there a need for what you do and who are your customers?

Street furniture, the commonly used term for outdoor furnishings, has been around since Roman times when mile markers were invented. It has generally lacked creativity, design and innovation preferring to remain plain and functional. With over 30 years’ global experience ESF offers integrated technologies such as solar and LEDs to help create immersive environments. Our customers are as wide ranging as local councils and contractors to global theme park developers and designers.

What makes you better than that which is already out there?

Creativity, innovation, collaboration, partnerships, challenging the norm, pushing boundaries are all part of my everyday life, and while these may sound simple objectives they are what differentiates ESF from any other company. My ability to match the design and manufacturing capacity of small local businesses to a global requirement through supply chain and design collaborations, and our willingness to work anywhere is what sets us above the norm.

What excites you most about what you do?

The next challenge - not knowing what that next phone call or email will ask for, or indeed where is will be from excites us. In the last two years we have supplied products to over 20 countries including the world’s largest theme parks operators.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve come up against so far?

When establishing the business, the biggest challenge was cash flow and the availability of money. That continues to be an issue as we grow.

Another challenge is that in the global theme park attraction market, we

JANUARY 2017

are a relatively unknown and small company as we have only recently started servicing this market. We must work very hard to establish ESF and promote the services we provide.

What would help you kick on to the next level?

Global awareness and recognition of our brand, and the ability to work in markets and sectors through partners and collaborative partners throughout the world. That, plus a much better airline connectivity from Belfast airport of course.

What do you ultimately want to achieve?

To become the global market leader in themed, immersive street furniture incorporating the latest technologies and innovation. For every theme park, museum, zoo, water park and experience attraction to think of ESF first as market leaders would be a phenomenal achievement.

Who inspires you in business?

People who have pushed the boundaries and overcome criticism and negativity to achieve their goals on a global scale. Walt Disney, who despite his micro attention to detail, could never have dreamed of the success his brand has become, Richard Branson who continues to defy the odds and take unconventional risks, and Donald Trump, who whilst already a multi-billionaire felt passionate enough about his country to want to make difference and make it better. ■

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PROFILE

Name: Edmund Hourican Position: Business Exhibitions Ltd

A word from

The Wise How did you start out in business?

I started working in Dublin in the finance department of a multi-national company where I had the opportunity to qualify as an accountant; a skill-set which helped me considerably in my later career within the exhibition and events industry. I got really interested in travel when I moved into the sector to direct the financial operations of a major travel company and that, I suppose, is where the seeds were planted for Holiday World, firstly in Dublin and for the past 24 years, in Belfast as well.

What did you find the most challenging during your years in business?

Planning ahead is inevitably problematical. It’s vital always to be thinking of where you want your business to be three (and even more) years ahead and to maintain a focus on what you need to do to get there. A multitude of factors will affect your aspirations so, as I have discovered, the best approach is to make sure your company is flexible and open-minded enough to stay on course whatever circumstances may throw at you.

Our industry sector, by its very nature, is everchanging, and I constantly remind myself of the opportunities that creates, rather than the problems.

How would you describe your management style?

I prefer the consultative style as it allows me to use the skills, experiences, and ideas of others while still retaining the final decisionmaking power.

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The column with an ear for experience...

What would you change if you could go back and do it all again?

I would make a much greater effort to learn languages. That would have allowed me to work abroad and gain more varied experiences.

Have you done it all on your own?

Not at all. We’ve always had a terrific team working at Business Exhibitions Ltd and one of the great pleasures for my wife and I – we founded the business together – is seeing our two boys come on board, bringing fresh ideas and energy.

How would you like your business career to be remembered?

For business vision I hope. Thirty-five years ago I identified the growth potential of exhibition and events business and started to organise first class trade and public exhibitions in the travel, fashion, hardware, energy and home interiors sectors. I hope that, here in the North, I’ll also be remembered for having faith enough to launch a Belfast show almost 25 years ago when times and business were more difficult than they are today. That proved a good call and one which has allowed us to become a truly all-Ireland operation. It was also the foundation of many great relationships which endure today.

What piece of advice would you give a 20-year-old you?

Find a job in New York that pays well and never stop learning or travelling. ■

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RECRUITMENT

Five predictions for 2017 Justin Rush, Director at Abacus Professional Recruitment, says preparation is the key to meeting these economic predictions head on 1. More Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) businesses will arrive in Northern Ireland.

International businesses continue to set-up in Northern Ireland, often with the support of Invest NI. They do this because we have highly skilled, professional staff in finance, technology and law available at a very attractive price point compared to other major European cities such as Dublin and London. It is important to realise that these firms mainly establish support centres and are not interested in accessing the European marketplace from Belfast. Those that think foreign direct investment will reduce due to Brexit are incorrect.

My advice: Ensure your employee retention and attraction strategies account for heightening demand for key personnel.

2. It will become harder to recruit graduates.

You might think that there are lots of graduates around and you will have your pick of the crop when you go to market. Wrong. Finance, Law, Business Studies, IT Graduates are all in demand, especially those with a 2:1 or better.

They are in-demand from organisations locally and internationally (Check out how many firms from outside Northern Ireland attend our local universities graduate recruitment days).

Many large corporate firms locally are seeking to ramp up on the appointment of graduate talent that they can train for tomorrow.

My advice: Get ahead of the crowd and offer an industrial placement to students of the course your requirements are best aligned to.

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3. Social media will become your main source of quality candidates.

People are not applying to job adverts like they used to. That is the cold, hard truth.

Application rates from all the major local and international job boards are in decline.

The insight and transparency available from social media and ‘rate your employer’ sites like glassdoor means that the top talent in professional areas know whom they want to work for.

My advice: Make social media the vehicle for delivering corporate communications on growth, CSR activities, new appointments and recruitment drives.

4. Time spent per hire will increase.

HR Professionals involved in recruitment will tell you that time per hire is the key stat they would like to reduce. An abundance of software exists to support the recruitment process but top quality candidates demand personal attention. These people want assurances that can only be delivered in person, there is no way around it.

My advice: Be as transparent as you can when recruiting, ideally you should involve recent recruits in the latter stages of your process. Recent recruits can evidence that commitments made are met.

5. Brexit will make Northern Ireland less attractive to the migrant workforce.

This may seem like the ultimate obvious statement, but it is of course very true across all sectors of industry not just agri-

Justin Rush

food, manufacturing and hospitality. Many professionals in Software Development, Analytics, Finance and Science originally come from outside of Northern Ireland. How welcome these professionals will be in the months ahead remains unclear.

My advice: If you have employees who are critical to your business make them aware that you are intent on supporting their application for a permanent visa.

You may be wondering how sound my predictions are. Well the truth is, that all the points listed above have already been happening in 2016. Unfortunately, there really is no reason to believe that things will change dramatically in 2017. â– Justin Rush is a career recruiter and Director at Abacus Professional Recruitment. He can be contacted on justin@abacus.jobs

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The changing face of careers The nature of the job market is rapidly evolving with different career opportunities emerging in line with new technologies and trends. Now, more than ever, it is important for Careers Education in Schools to properly prepare School leavers for this ever-changing career landscape.

Mrs Sarah Coetzee, Head of Careers at Campbell College, investigates how Schools’ Careers Departments are adapting to the changes afoot.

I

t is a priority to ensure that students are thoroughly equipped with the necessary skills needed to safeguard a sustainable economy, particularly in Northern Ireland.

Trends show that we need more students to progress through higher levels of education with first-rate guidance for fields to meet the demands of future areas of skill shortage. The curriculum taught through careers education (CEAIG: Careers Education Information Advice and Guidance) encourages our students to think ahead. The students must consider what the possible emerging trends are in the labour market, not just follow traditional practice. Through careers education classes our students are given the opportunities to explore their academic or extra-curricular strengths whilst considering their attributes and values. If they make good, informed choices at the outset, success is more likely.

Embedding the importance of careers happens not only during these classes but also through the entire school curriculum, and through multiple careers events held at the college. We are fortunate to be able to tap into our well-established Old Campbellian network as well as other local business contacts that can provide support across diverse career areas. Campbell invests heavily in ‘one-to-one’ guidance for students in addition to timetabled classes. Our annual Year 13 Assessment Centre attracts 50-60 local business leaders who will interview our students individually to help improve their soft skills and give further insight into their preferred career path. Representing world-class

companies such as Denman or McLaren, this provides aspirations that our students can see as realistic goals, also meeting the needs of the local economy– 18% of our A-Level students, almost one-in-five, recently started university degrees in engineering.

We encourage each student to study what they enjoy which helps them to understand the context in which their passion can be applied. No matter what path they take in life, no-one can take their education away from them. Therefore, gaining good qualifications is still the best starting point in their career.

Our students frequently follow the growing STEM sector in the economy, choosing biological sciences, physical sciences and computer sciences. Indeed our success is very much attributed to great careers education helping them make strong decisions in growing economic markets. In addition to STEM, as Northern Ireland provides a growing business service for international markets, our students have pre-empted trends with interest in business and administration courses rising from 10.8% in 2015 to 16.8% of students in 2016.

As the Northern Ireland employment rate shows growth in certain sectors in recent months we know that our School leavers will be well equipped to make the right choices to lead them into fulfilling careers with hopefully more job opportunities available at the end of their journey through education.

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VENTURE CAPITAL

‘No matter the challenge, our job is to go out there and find the opportunities’ Private equity funds drive today’s business environment, says John Dolan of Cardinal Capital. He spoke to Dearbhail McDonald

T

here’s a dire scene in the movie Pretty Woman where corporate raider Edward Lewis (played by Richard Gere) undergoes a miraculous conversion aided by prostitute Vivian Ward (played by Julia Roberts) where Lewis decides to save Morse Industries instead of tearing the company apart and selling it off for a profit.

The asset stripper turned equity saviour sub plot is almost as mawkish and unrealistic as the main love story in the romcom.

It sees Gere’s character Lewis, who tells Ward that his job is to “screw people for money”, fulfil a childhood dream - in less than a week - of “building things” instead of tearing them down.

It was a happy-ever-after of a corporate kind, with new-found white knight Lewis completing the virtuous circle when he leaps from his white limousine and rescues Princess Vivian.

Hollywood has a lot to answer for.

However, Pretty Woman (the corporate part at least) gets - in its own schmaltzy way - to the heart of the debate over private equity.

Do private equity funds want to grow the companies they buy or are they in it for nothing more than a dastardly smash and grab?

Is private equity a force for public good or should we hold on to our businesses for dear life like Bull McCabe in The Field?

I decide not to share my Pretty Woman

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metaphor when I meet John Dolan, the softspoken managing director of private equity with Cardinal Capital Group, the alternative capital provider to the island of Ireland.

The group provides private equity capital, mezzanine finance and other alternative or shadow lending to a broad range of sectors in the Irish market, including the property sector.

Private equity funds, Dolan admits, are not universally loved or, he argues, well understood.

It’s their investment in distressed Irish property assets that has garnished a particularly bad name for private equity funds in recent times.

This is not least because they have been trading - entirely lawfully - in Irish distressed

assets, including domestic mortgages, on a de facto tax-free basis. The Government has moved to restrict Section 110 and has also spooked Ireland’s investment and advisory community with threats to review other tax neutral structures used by private equity funds - including Ireland’s newest fund vehicle, the Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicle (ICAV).

I meet Dolan to discuss the activities of Carlyle Cardinal Ireland, a 50:50 joint venture between Cardinal and the Carlyle Group, the US global asset manager.

The CCI fund, at just under €300m, is the largest private equity fund focussed on investments in Irish SME and mid-market companies, investing between €5m and €50m

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VENTURE CAPITAL

in each investee company, with co-investment available for what CCI describes as “larger tickets”.

The “sector agnostic” fund comes with huge backing by the Irish Government, with some €125m in funding from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (Isif).

It’s an interesting time to meet Dolan, as the all-island fund, which has a 10-year life cycle, has now deployed about half of its funds.

The CCI has, in its first three years, invested in seven businesses, many of them household names such as chocolatier Lily O’Brien’s, consumer payments company Payzone Ireland and Carroll’s, the eponymous ham maker.

In recent months, the fund made its first steps across the border, investing in Learning Pool, the Derry e-learning solutions provider.

And just last June, it acquired AA Ireland, the motor and car insurance provider which recently announced its entry into the Irish life assurance market, for €156.6m.

The case studies and the growth of the Irish companies the fund is investing in are, says Dolan, helping to overcome a cultural resistance amongst Irish businesses to private equity.

“I think the fear lies in understanding what private equity is and what type of private equity is available,” says Dolan, who trained as an accountant with Deloitte after studying commerce at UCD. “Our fund is set up with a growth mandate so we take companies that are growing already and try and accelerate that growth plan, versus other private equity plans that have different ways and styles about getting that return.

The return CCI (an exclusively growth capital fund which does not back start-ups) expects from its investments is not for the faint hearted. The fund aims to double a business within five years, with high expectations and potential rewards for companies that agree to go on the private equity journey. Dolan says it is the job of the fund, as an investment partner, to bring established companies

JANUARY 2017

to the next level. And to ensure it does, a representative of both Cardinal and Carlyle automatically join the board of an investee company.

The fund also carries out extensive local market research and relationship-building with management teams and advisors to ensure its stars - their management team’s goals and that of the company - align.

Competing with US and UK private equity companies, Dolan says it is CCI’s 10-strong team’s local knowledge and contact base that distinguishes it from potential rivals.

“Our job is to go and find opportunities, no matter what challenges come. If there weren’t things like Brexit, everybody would be doing what we are doing and seeking other opportunities. Ultimately, we still have to come down with a view on that.

That means we may not pursue just now or it may mean that now is a really good time to pursue - and we might acquire a UK business.”

“We are the largest fund locally,” says Dolan, who sits on several investee boards and spends his weekends fielding calls from his new entrepreneur colleagues (in between refereeing underage football games).

“That and the level of activity that we have done, that’s our unique selling point. People are wary about investing, particularly where there is no local presence on the ground.

“Everyone relies on the local relationship, so we spend a lot of time not just meeting the

management and companies, but also advisors to find out what’s going on and who we should be talking to.”

Dolan’s conversion to private equity was completed after a lengthy career on the advisory side. After graduating from UCD, he trained as an accountant and advised on a series of major deals with Deloitte Corporate Finance and later with NCB. He was the lead investor and director in a number of Ireland’s fastest growing tech companies including AMCS, Helix Health, Fenergo (which secured $75m from Insight Venture Partners last year), and BriteBill (which last month was bought by Nasdaq-listed Amdocs for €80m).

At NCB (renamed Investec in 2013), he was a partner in Investec Ventures, its venture capital fund and was a key member of the team that sold 50pc of the Mater Private Hospital to UK private equity firm Capvest in a deal reported at the time to value the group at €350m.

Earlier this year, Carlyle Cardinal was one of several groups reportedly shortlisted to bid for the Mater Private - a feat which would have capped a remarkable cycle for Dolan.

Dolan has an uncanny knack of riding the waves of the economic cycles: during the crash years he was investing venture capital in start-ups.

“We still had the excitement of entrepreneurs coming in and pitching to you on a daily basis - it was pretty uplifting. You were reading about terrible things on the way into work, but then you were meeting entrepreneurs and the freshness of that kept you sane during that period.”

Dolan is effusive in his praise for the island of Ireland’s entrepreneurs whom, he says, have an unrelenting dedication and focus.

“There is a trait across entrepreneurs, they’re on it 24 hours a day. I always wonder about their family lives,” says Dolan, who himself is out on the road for most of the week and is nonchalant about the intrusions into his > personal life.

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VENTURE CAPITAL

The sports fanatic and married father of three is also a big fan of Government agencies, such as the IDA and ISIF, which, he says, have maintained funding for Irish business through the worst phases of the economic cycle.

Bullish about Brexit, he says the decision by the UK to leave the European Union presents as many opportunities as it does challenges.

“Our job is to go and find opportunities, no matter what challenges come,” he says, adding that investors are doing a lot more sensitivity analysis since the poll.

“If there weren’t things like Brexit, everybody would be doing what we are doing and seeking other opportunities.

“Ultimately, we still have to come down with a view on that. That means we may not pursue just now or it may mean that now is a really good time to pursue - and we might acquire a UK business.”

Dolan says local banks have also been hugely supportive of the CCI’s growth agenda: all seven investments have been banked locally across all the main banks.

“We are giving the banks huge confidence,” he says.

“If the business is cash generative and steady, the banks that are looking to deploy money to grow their own books again will be keen to deploy money in those circumstances.

“If you are at the other end of the spectrum and you are in turnaround mode, they’re probably still scared.

“If a business just keeps taking on bank debt and doesn’t take on any equity, then the bank are much higher up the risk chain. If something goes wrong with any of our businesses, we’ll take the first hit. That’s why we are looking for a higher return level than they are.” ■

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John Dolan of Cardinal Capital, as depicted by portrait artist Sam Berkley

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OFFICE WORKING

Bad habits in the office?

W

hat’s your office eccentricity?

Do you thump keyboards, bellow into phones or hide behind headphones? If you’re unsure, Adrian Weckler runs down a few habits you might recognise in yourself or in colleagues.

1. The keyboard thumper Thok thok thok. THOK THOK. You know the person I’m talking about: the one who doesn’t trust a key to register its alphanumeric symbol unless it’s hammered with the force of a construction drill. THOK THOK THOK. Extra violence is reserved for the ‘return’ key, which is assaulted with the same venom normally reserved for the last bang of a nail when mounting a framed picture. THOKKKK. It’s no good explaining that the computer’s buttons register just as well when tapped instead of brutalised. Mashing those keys releases serotonin or something.

2. The phone shouter “HI, I WAS JUST PHONING TO SEE IF YOU GOT THAT PACKAGE.” Many office workers don’t know that phone microphones (and handset speakers at the other end) vary their audio volume precious little according to the decibel level of the person talking.

In other words, the person at the other end hears you almost identically regardless of whether you talk quietly or scream. Even your 96-year-old grandad can’t hear you any better if you bellow into the phone. However, the entire office - possibly over multiple floors - will hear every detail of your conversation, whether they want to or not.

4. The tech cooler There are some who walk among us that possess the preternatural power to break, freeze or discombobulate even the finest, most idiot-proof tech machinery. It might manifest itself in a magenta streak that occurs only on their display screen. Or a networking lock triggered by a backdoor combination of keystrokes that they inadvertently trigger. Or a Windows reboot prompt. Or some other obscure malady that only someone extremely gifted - or extremely unlucky - could set in motion at an ordinary, modern PC. Like William H Macy’s character in the 2003 film ‘The Cooler’ (who had a mysterious ability to screw up any run of fortune that a gambler had by just being in their presence) these special individuals overcome any networked system.

3. The screen-toucher They come by your computer, look at what you’re looking at and want to comment on it. The only way to do this, seemingly, is to touch the part of the PC screen they’re referring to. Pointing won’t do, it has to be an over-shoulder reach-in followed by skin on glass. (And they’re not confusing it with a touchscreen, either.)

On an unrelated point, why do so many people point at things with their middle finger?

5. The patsy Ever scratch your head wondering who clicks the emails that promise $16m from a Nigerian prince for following a hyperlink?

Look around you. Every office has someone who will defensively say they’re “not a tech expert” and can’t be expected to know the difference between obvious frauds and legitimate queries. Talk to IT departments in any large organisation and they’ll roll their eyes.

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“This is the reason we barely let you do anything on your work PC,” one told me some time back. “The place would be overrun with viruses in hours.”

6. The evergreen charger-seeker “Does anyone have a charger?” Years ago, I sat next to someone who would ask for a piece of chewing gum or a paracetamol tablet every day. I asked her once why she didn’t buy any of either. “I keep forgetting,” she said.

Every office has someone who forgets to charge their phone in the morning and doesn’t have a charger at work. There isn’t much point in saying that Dealz and other shops sell charger cables for £1.50 and that such cables can simply be plugged into ordinary office PCs. They’d probably just forget.

7. The headphone hermit The advent of wireless headphones has been a boon for antisocial colleagues. It’s not the music, it’s the signal that tells others: ‘don’t talk to me’. Look around and you’ll find a workmate who always seems to have a pair stuck on their head.

To be fair, they might reasonably argue that they’re merely taking aural shelter from the hordes of phone-shouters, keyboard thumpers and charger seekers roaming the rest of the office. ■

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INTERVIEW

Business

Breakfast

By David Elliott

The column that doesn’t have time for lunch...

DINER: GRAEME JOHNSTON, BELFAST HARBOUR VENUE: COFFEE DOCK, CLARENDON DOCK, BELFAST

R

eeling from last month’s trip to the depths of Armagh, Business Breakfast kept its wanderlust in check for the first column of the year by opting to chow down in the closest eaterie to UB Towers.

The Coffee Dock in Belfast’s Clarendon Dock is exactly 257 steps from the front door where these words are written, but even less from what can only be imagined to be the resplendent office of this month’s subject Graeme Johnston from Belfast Harbour.

Knowing the cut of the harbour’s jib, Ulster Business had mischievously suggested we break yolks in Benny’s café - that stalwart of the bacon sandwich on the brilliantly-named Short Street just outside the main harbour gates - but logistics dictated that a more sensible halfway house would be at TCD, as we know it round these parts.

The harbour’s Property Director was already waiting when Ulster Business arrived complete with his own minder, a first for a Business Breakfast interview and something we can only take as a compliment to the fine dining, mental ping pong and joviality we have

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become used to in these early morning chit chats.

There was initially a hint we were going to fall back into the early affliction of this column where subjects arrived for a Business Breakfast interview pre-breakfasted, but luckily Graeme pulled it back at the last minute and joined your scribe in a bowl of porridge and maple syrup, accompanied by a whole banana.

The beauty with that slightly unexpected combination was the porridge made for a hearty breakfast and the banana for a handy takeaway snack to ward away the mid-morning munchies, again a first for this column and a indeed a first for this professional breakfasteer.

But enough of this banana chat (there is a vague segue to be made between bananas which were undoubtedly unloaded in the harbour in years past, but for once we’re not going to go there) and onto the business of Belfast Harbour’s Property Director.

Graeme is in charge of all the property on the harbour estate, a role which encompasses 700 tenants (which employ 23,000 people) and

INTERVIEW

which is becoming increasingly important to the organisation’s bottom line and also to the growth and development of Belfast’s economy.

He’s also tasked with developing property on the estate, evidence of which is plain to see as construction progresses of grade A office block City Quays 2 and the 188-room Marriott Hotel on the water’s edge next door to Belfast Harbour’s headquarters.

It follows the successful completion and full let of City Quays 1, a building which has been filled with inward investors such as US law firm Baker & McKenzie and IT firms Cayan and Golf Now. Even now, with rents of grade A office space heading up toward the magical £20 a square foot level, the cranes at the City Quay site are a rarity in the city, apart from those developing the University of Ulster’s new campus and Belfast City Council’s Adelaide Street building.

The reason the harbour was able to proceed with construction at a time when others weren’t was because of what Graeme calls its “closed-loop” system.

It, like other ports around the UK, is a Trust Port, isn’t able to borrow money and doesn’t get anything from government, instead relying on its own reserves to fund major building projects or other infrastructure.

As such, it was able to call on its own funds to begin building City Quays 1 at a time when other developers were unable to embark on

JANUARY 2017

speculative building and why it is forging ahead with the nine story City Quays 2 and the new hotel and in progress with the 17-storey City Quays 3 which will be built by the end of 2019. After that is the City Quays 4 building which will go into planning in the next few months and sits alongside the cross harbour bridge, as well as car park close by.

In these and future building projects the harbour has adopted a more hands-on role as a property developer with Graeme at the helm, something which was the main reason why he joined the organisation back in 2007.

“I looked across the entire 2,000 acre estate and determined we had three major development opportunities: City Quays, Sydenham Business park and Titanic Quarter.”

Having started out in chartered real estate consultancy, his early career revolved around residential and small commercial development for his own company before moving to Ulster Bank as Head of Technical Services for 11 years (a role which saw him buy the Belfast arm’s Donegall Square East headquarters) and then to Henderson Group for over three years where he developed its store portfolio.

He arrived at Belfast Harbour in 2007 with

the remit to help the organisation change the way it developed its property from one which merely acted as a ground landlord and handed the development of its properties over to others, to one which develops the property, secures tenants and rents out the building.

Clarendon Dock is a good example of the former, the City Quays development of the latter and one of the three opportunities Graeme identified when he arrived in 2007.

“I looked across the entire 2,000 acre estate and determined we had three major development opportunities: City Quays, Sydenham Business park and Titanic Quarter,” he said.

Development of Sydenham Business Park has been ongoing since then with units there aimed mostly at small-to-medium sized businesses while Titanic Quarter’s mixed use development of offices and apartments is clear to see.

It’s been a busy time for the property director since taking up office but one he was well prepared for.

Given the huge expansion he’s been charged with in all his roles, he could be forgiven for appearing harried but even with constant badgering about the new tenants for the City Quays offices, Graeme’s calm demeanour doesn’t falter.

It might have, in the slightly more rambustuous surrounds of Benny’s, but we’ll test that out another day. ■

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New-Look MLN Launches the 10th Management Month Festival February 2017 will see Management Month™ (MM) celebrate its tenth birthday and the Management & Leadership Network (MLN) is encouraging local businesses to make the festival work for them. The initiative is made possible by MLN’s Champions (shown below) and offers business leaders and entrepreneurs the opportunity hear from internationally-renowned thought-leaders and high achievers.

To mark MM’s 10th birthday, MLN has invested in a new brand and website and these were launched to an audience of business leaders at James Street South in Belfast. According to MLN’s Kevin Kelly the “new look MLN has a nautical feel to it and this reflects the fact that MLN exists to assist our captains. That is the captains of our organisations, our industries and our economy. We will offer our captains access to the insights and experiences of thought leaders and high achievers so that they might further excel in their own circumstances”. This will be done through events, such as those in Management Month, as well as podcasts and video casts, which will be unveiled early in 2017.

The MM Festival will kick off on Thursday 2nd February at the Island Conference Centre in Lisburn with a breakfast masterclass entitled ‘Achieving a Competitive Edge’ and the line-up at this event will include three-time Paralympic Gold Medallist, Dr Michael McKillop. Another event to look out for will take place at Mossley Mill on Wednesday 8th February where F1 Business Leader and BestSelling Business Author Mark Gallagher will share his insights on ‘The Business of Winning’. Mark will be joined by a panel of local business leaders who will offer their own transferable lessons to those lucky enough to secure a place.

All of the Management Month masterclasses are free to attend, with only the SuMMit (overleaf) attracting a nominal charge. The calendar of events will be updated throughout January and can be viewed at www.mln.org.uk. Almost all of last year’s MM events were over-subscribed so Ulster Business readers should act quickly to secure a place at the events which appeal to them.

Visit www.mln.org.uk for the most up to date Management Month calendar

World-Class Line up for the SuMMit Have you Secured Your Place?

When did you last take time to think about the bigger picture for you and your business? Hundreds of Business and Public Sector leaders are now using the SuMMit to do exactly that. Confirmed speakers for the event at Titanic Belfast are detailed below: Jamil Qureshi - Psychologist to World #1 Performers Jamil has helped six of his clients get to number one in the world in their chosen field. He has worked successfully with F1 drivers, world #1 golfers, fighter pilots, medical teams and astronauts on the NASA space programme. He has developed and delivered leadership programs at board level for companies such as Coca Cola, HP, Emirates and Orange. Having spent 15 years working with the world’s elite, he is in a genuinely unique position to define ‘the difference that makes the difference’.

Michael O’Neill - Northern Ireland Football Manager Having masterminded qualification for the Euro 2016 finals in France, Michael and his team went on to inspire and enthral the nation by qualifying for the last 16 of the tournament. This was an incredible transformation for a team that, just three years before, was ranked 89th in the world and enduring a 12-match winless run. Michael will reflect on this journey and will share some of the management and leadership lessons that he has learned along the way.

Hannah O’Reilly and Elaine Lavery - Co-Founders of Improper Butter In 2013 Hannah, from Enniskillen, and Elaine, from Dublin, developed Improper Butter. Their product is now supplied throughout Ireland, as well as the UK and the Middle East, in outlets such as Supervalu, Waitrose, Avoca and Tesco. Along the way, Elaine and Hannah have delivered a successful Dragon’s Den pitch, been named on Ireland’s list of ‘30 under 30’ and been shortlisted to the final 16 of Sir Richard Branson’s Foodpreneur competition. They will share valuable insights from their entrepreneurial journey, which will be relevant to all managers and leaders.

Professor Neil Gibson - Economist & Media Commentator A frequent media commentator and speaker on the international conference stage, Neil is Director of the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC) at the Ulster University Business School. Prior to that he was a Director in Oxford Economics for 10 years, during which time he led consultancy projects for many of the world’s largest companies. A truly engaging orator, Neil will reflect on a turbulent 12 months and offer his views on how managers and leaders can, and must, operate effectively within a consistently unpredictable environment.

Individual tickets are priced at £65+vat (RRP £245+vat - heavily subsidised thanks to the MLN Champions below).

A table of 8 costs £455+vat (one place free) and a limited number of exhibition tables are available at £495+vat.

For more information and to book your place visit www.mln.org.uk or call 028 9076 1030.

We do more. Better.

As Northern Ireland’s top law firm, we lead the way.

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12/12/2016 14:30

ANALYSIS

Finding a new energy Recent market energy prices reveal that businesses in Northern Ireland on fixed price contracts may be overpaying on their energy bills, as wholesale costs have dropped significantly in the past two years. Peter Girvan, Energy Manager for Vayu Energy, explains why there is now more incentive than ever for business leaders to explore all energy management procurement options available to them.

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ooking at the strategies of some of the most successful companies in the world we see that they take a holistic approach to growing their businesses.

Not only do they work to retain customers and generate new business, they also look at how they can achieve long-term value across all areas of their businesses. Efficiency and an educated approach to energy procurement have become board level items for many of these companies.

Energy prices have continued their downward spiral over the past few years, thanks to healthy supply levels and a drop in the price of oil. That looks set to continue, with updated figures showing that European gas storage levels are extremely healthy.

This is all welcome news for companies on variable energy contracts, where the delivered rate will change depending on wholesale prices. However, our research has shown that a significant number of businesses in Northern Ireland on fixed term contracts may have paid over the odds for their energy when compared to those on variable contracts.

Significant value can be achieved by reviewing your procurement strategies and reacting quickly to market changes. Take the energy sector for example. In the September Wholesale Energy Market Report published by Vayu Energy, it showed that gas prices were down 36 per cent on the same period the previous year and a staggering 49% lower compared with the average monthly price recorded for the month of September over the previous three years (2013-2015).

The average wholesale day-time price of

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electricity in the Irish market in September was £35.71 MWh, a decrease of 5% month on month. This theme was consistent from January until the end of September this year, with a small rise measured in October as the market reacted to a seasonal price adjustment.

The all island Single Electricity Market (SEM) is also set to undergo radical transformation arising from changes to European legislation designed to create a single wholesale electricity market across Europe. The new market design developed by the SEM Committee will result in what has been named an Integrated SEM (I-SEM), which will more fully facilitate coupling with the electricity market in the rest of Europe.

Energy companies and customers are reacting to these changes, with some being more innovative than others. While fixed term contracts still offer an element of reassurance, flexible options provide the customer with more freedom, enabling them to extract more value from the wholesale market when times are good, whilst still offering the option of fixing tranches or their full requirement should there be any concern over significant market pressure.

While there is a time investment involved to take this level of control, the majority of the background work should be done by the energy supplier. It will ensure that your business will benefit from their expertise, allowing you to obtain value when it is presented. Every company is different, with unique energy requirements and therefore the same solution is not for everyone, so look for a flexible solution that will work for your company.

At Vayu, for example, we provide our business

Peter Girvan

customers with regular reports and analysis to keep them up to date on how the all island energy market is operating, as well as any major global influences.

A supplier providing market insight, knowledge and support, means even those with time or resource constraints needn’t be left behind.

By developing strong relationships and by taking the time to understand individual circumstances, a more economic outcome can be delivered.

It is time for businesses in Northern Ireland to become a little more ruthless when it comes to energy and reviewing their energy procurement procedures to find the best rates available.

To successfully control their energy cost, a business simply cannot focus only on commodity delivery. It is important to partner with a supplier that will deliver the necessary education and procurement solutions that are right for you to allow you maximise long-term energy savings. ■

Motoring

By Pat Burns

MOTORING

NI’s leading contract hire and vehicle management provider, Fleet Financial, has donated £31,000 to Hope for Youth NI as part of celebrations to mark two decades in business in 2016.Pictured announcing the donation are Philip Miley, Sales and Marketing Director of Fleet Financial and Noel Lamb, Chair of Hope for Youth NI’s Board of Trustees along with board members Emma Nicholson, Vanne Campbell, Earl of Erne, Dr Miriam McCarthy, Eugenia Dunn, Henrietta Reade, Johnny Andrews, James Jackson, and Tom Chambré.

Fleet Financial puts charity drive into first gear Vital funds raised for local charity as both celebrate two decades

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orthern Ireland’s leading contract hire and vehicle management provider Fleet Financial has donated £31,000 to Hope for Youth NI as part of the ongoing celebrations and major fundraising effort by the company to mark two decades in business in 2016.

The substantial sum was raised during a Gala Ball in April, with the funds distributed among Hope for Youth’s partner groups, affiliates and organisations throughout Northern Ireland.

Philip Miley, Sales and Marketing Director, Fleet Financial, said: “Hope for Youth is an incredible organisation that helps change the lives of young people across Northern Ireland and we are delighted to support the very valuable work they do.

“It has been a privilege to partner with such a

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worthwhile charity, as we both celebrate our 20th anniversaries, and the funds raised by our customers, partners, staff and friends at the Gala Ball event earlier this year will allow Hope for Youth’s stellar work to continue.”

“Projects are underway to provide opportunities for groups of children from diverse backgrounds, to gain a much better understanding of these communities and gain awareness and self-respect.

During the last 20 years Hope for Youth has raised over £1m to support crosscommunity projects for young people aged 11-18 in Northern Ireland regardless of their background. The projects are focused on developing teamwork, creativity and personal life skills, especially within the arts, music and the great outdoors.

“Thanks to the support of Fleet Financial, we can embrace this diversity and in doing so create an enhanced Northern Ireland for both today and the future.”

Noel Lamb, Chair of the charity’s Board of Trustees, said: “This is a hugely generous donation from Fleet Financial and we look forward to using it to enable the projects we support across Northern Ireland to continue their lifechanging and lifesaving work with children and young people.

Launched in February 1996, Fleet Financial has played a leading role in supporting businesses across the UK and Ireland and is officially Northern Ireland’s Best Fleet Provider following consecutive award wins at the Business Eye Fleet Awards for two consecutive years.

The firm is also the highest-ranking Northern Ireland fleet company in the UK’s official Top 50 list as compiled by industry bible Fleet News. ■

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MOTORING

Optima space and value

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stylish and spacious large estate car, the Optima Sportswagon, joins the Kia range priced from £22,295. Kia’s first ever D-segment estate car comes to the UK at the same time as a plug-in hybrid version of the Optima, giving the company two new opportunities to expand its business, especially in company fleets.

harman/kardon eight-speaker audio system, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Smart Cruise Control and Rear Cross Traffic Alert.

In Europe, two-thirds of D-segment sales and 75 per cent of fleet sales in the class are taken by estate cars. The Optima Sportswagon was designed in Europe and will be sold only in Europe.

Standard equipment also matches what is available on the corresponding saloon and is unashamedly targeted at business users who make up the vast majority of buyers in this sector of the market. There are, however, certain additions exclusive to the estate. Roof rails are standard with all three trim lines, along with a luggage area DC power socket, a handle for one-touch folding of the rear seats, a luggage side partition and towing connection preparation.

Style is not at the expense of practicality and versatility, however: the Optima Sportswagon has a minimum of 552 litres of cargo space, including two underfloor trays, and 1,686 litres with the rear seats folded. Stylish integrated roof rails are standard.

Like the Optima saloon, it is sold exclusively with a highly efficient, torquey and refined 1.7-litre turbodiesel engine. And it is available with a full suite of advanced connectivity and active driver assistance technologies, including Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, Kia Connected Services powered by TomTom, a

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There are three trim lines for the new Optima Sportswagon – 2, 3 and GT-Line S – echoing those available for the Optima saloon. A sporty high-performance GT version will make that four variants early in 2017.

The entry-level 2 grade comes as standard with a 7.0-inch satellite navigation system with European mapping and a reversing camera, steering wheel-mounted controls, front and rear USB ports, dual automatic air conditioning with ioniser, a leather-trimmed steering wheel and gearshifter, cruise control with a speed limiter, electrically heated folding mirrors, a six-

speaker DAB radio with MP3 compatibility and Bluetooth with music streaming.

Grade 3 upgrades the navigation screen to 8.0 inches, has an eight-way power-adjustable driver’s memory seat with four-way electronic lumbar adjustment, heated front seats and dual projection headlights. The exterior is distinguished by 18-inch alloy wheels, chrome and body colour exterior door handles, LED front foglights and rear combination lamps and chrome-coloured side sill mouldings.

GT-Line S supplements all this with different design 18-inch alloy wheels, a wireless mobile phone charger, 360-degree Around View Monitor, a Smart Park Assist System, Blind Spot Detection with Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Adaptive Smart Cruise Control, High Beam Assist, Autonomous Emergency Braking and a Smart Powered Tailgate. It also has a tilting and sliding panoramic sunroof and LED headlights with automatic levelling.

The Optima Sportswagon is the best of all worlds – a sleek, beautifully proportioned D-segment car in its own right, but one with a vast amount of practicality and versatility for the business drivers who will be its primary customers. ■

MOTORING

Mazda3 gets sharper and smarter

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he highly acclaimed Mazda3 has been updated for 2017.

Highlights across the full hatchback and Fastback range include subtle exterior changes and an updated cabin.

Plus, with the introduction of G-Vectoring Control, the debut of Mazda’s SkyActiv technology.

Having added the smooth, frugal and sub 100g/km 1.5-litre diesel engine to the Mazda3 last year, both this and the well-established 2.2-litre diesel engine now feature Transient Control, which ensures a more positive throttle response by reducing turbo lag and boosting torque to deliver a petrol-like engine feel.

Maintaining an award-winning range of SkyActiv petrol and diesel engines, the 2017 Mazda3’s broad spread of enhancements are designed to keep it at the forefront of this competitive class.

Refinement has also been enhanced thanks to the introduction of Mazda’s Natural Sound Smoother (NSS) technology, which reduces knock noise during starting and low-speed acceleration on diesel engines.

Externally, the 2017 Mazda3 is marked out by a revised grille with a stronger three-dimensional look and a new front fog light bezel.

Across both body styles, revised door mirrors feature wraparound turn indicators, while hatchback versions have a redesigned rear bumper.

SE and SE-L Nav trim cars feature 16-inch alloy wheels, while Sport Nav models benefit from a new design of high-sheen finish 18-inch alloy wheels. Inside, the new Mazda3’s cabin evolves the driver-oriented interior space with a host of updates that include higher-quality switch panels and handle bezels on the doors, plus a newly designed trim insert on the dashboard.

The adoption of an electric parking brake creates space for a more practical centre console, while another highlight is a new leather steering wheel design that enhances feel and style, and if combined with leather seats is heated.

Now on sale, the 2017 Mazda3 is offered with a choice of 105ps 1.5-litre or 150ps 2.2-litre diesel engines, alongside a petrol line-up that includes 120ps and 165ps versions of the 2.0-litre SkyActiv petrol engine.

JANUARY 2017

Across the whole range, overall refinement has been substantially improved with added noise suppression material in the roof, doors, dashboard and transmission tunnel area. Optimised door seals and additional vibration damping materials between the rear crossmembers further improve cabin comfort.

In addition, revisions to theMacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension have focused on delivering improved ride comfort and reducing vibration, while at the same time enhancing the pin-sharp handling the Mazda3 is famed for.

The 2017 Mazda3 also features G-Vectoring Control (GVC). It varies engine torque to optimize wheel load to indiscernibly provide more precise handling and improved comfort.

Other technology highlights include the adaption of a full-colour display on the enhanced head–up display system, while for the first time the Mazda3 is offered with Adaptive LED headlights. The 2017 Mazda3 is priced from £17,595 to £24,195. ■

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MOTORING

No more puncture worries for doctors-on-call

Pictured above are Peter Dickson, Bridgestone Ireland, Stephen Shaw, Modern Tyres and Billy Caskey, Fleet Operations Manager, Agnew Corporate

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wo Northern Ireland doctor-oncall cars have been fitted with Bridgestone’s new DriveGuard runflat tyres courtesy of Bridgestone Ireland.

The tyres have been fitted to Agnew Corporate Fleet vehicles serviced by Modern Tyres to show the capability of this new innovative tyre technology. If the doctor-on-call cars experience a puncture while on duty they will be able to continue driving for 50 miles at a speed of 50 mph.

“Bridgestone are delighted to supply DriveGuard tyres to the doctors-on-call cars and we believe they are very appropriate for vehicles that need to continue their journey even after a puncture,” said Peter Dickson, Bridgestone Ireland.

Stephen Shaw of Modern Tyres, said: “As a service provider for the Agnew Corporate fleet I am pleased to see them embracing this new tyre technology offered by Bridgestone. I can think of other vehicles in their fleet that would benefit from Driveguard tyres being fitted.”

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Uniquely Bridgestone DriveGuard tyres can be fitted to any car fitted with a tyre pressure monitoring system alerting motorists to a puncture on their dashboard. Up until DriveGuard’s introduction earlier this year run flat tyres were only available as a replacement tyre.

In addition to its run flat capability Bridgestone DriveGuard offers a best in class performance with no compromise on wet or rolling resistance as supported by the excellent EU tyre Label values (A for Wet Performance and C for Rolling Resistance) and independent testing by TÜV Süd demonstrating that Bridgestone DriveGuard ranks highly in performance categories that are important to drivers, such as wet safety.

Meanwhile, Maserati has selected Bridgestone tyres for the new Levante, the luxury brand’s first-ever SUV. The all-wheel-drive SUV started leaving the Mirafiori plant near Turin in May 2016, fitted with Bridgestone Dueler H/P Sport tyres.

Bridgestone developed the Dueler H/P Sport

tyre specifically for today’s high-performance SUVs. With a tread design modelled on the Potenza sport tyre pattern, Bridgestone brings drivers the high-level steering response, wet control and in-car comfort they expect from the world’s most luxurious SUV models. Tyres will be marked ‘MGT’ to indicate approval by Maserati as original equipment on their vehicles.

Bridgestone’s Levante contract continues an historical relationship with Maserati, a story that started with Bridgestone’s innovative development of an 18” run flat technology (RFT) tyre for the Maserati Quattroporte V in the early 2000s. Also, owners of the new Alfa Romeo Giulia will drive out on Bridgestone’s Potenza S001 sport tyre with the added reassurance of run-flat technology.

Bridgestone pioneered the development of runflat tyres, offering drivers safety after a puncture with the reassurance that they won’t be left stranded. Importantly for drivers of sedans and executive cars, Bridgestone today produces runflat tyres that also provide the same smooth ride and comfort as standard tyres. ■

Planning your escape?

APPOINTMENTS

Mike Wiseman has joined North Time & Data as Service Support Manager. Mike will manage all aspects of Customer Service at NTD as the Company continues to grow.

Darron Pressley has been appointed Technical Lead at North Time & Data.

His new role is to lead the continual development of the NT Pro, Time Management Software.

Michael Bogle has been appointed Technical Sales Manager at North Time & Data. His new role is to develop the growth of its Time Management System and Access Control base in both NI and ROI.

As the newly-appointed Company Accountant at PRM Group, Stewart Mulligan will take responsibility for the financial management of the Group of Companies, ensuring they meet budgetary and legislative requirements.

Lorraine Keown joins Cleaver Fulton Rankin as an Associate Solicitor in the Family and Matrimonial Department.

Lorraine has significant experience across all areas of family law.

Nathan Campbell becomes a Solicitor in the Employment, Corporate Departments.

Nathan joined Cleaver Fulton Rankin as a Trainee Solicitor in September 2014. Prior to this, Nathan studied Law at Durham University.

Rachel Lewis becomes a Solicitor in the Corporate, Banking and Finance Department. Rachel joined Cleaver Fulton Rankin as a Trainee Solicitor in September 2014. She studied Law with French at Queen’s University Belfast.

Jade Gabriel becomes a Solicitor in the Private Client Department. Jade joined Cleaver Fulton Rankin as a Trainee Solicitor in 2014. She studied Law at Queen’s University Belfast.

Jonathan Gallagher has been appointed Director of Marketing at the five star Lough Erne Resort in Fermanagh. He previously held the role of Marketing Manager at Killyhevlin Lakeside Hotel.

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APPOINTMENTS

Ruairí McQuillan has been appointed as Network Engineer at firmus energy following 12 years’ experience in the engineering and natural gas industries.

Chris McCullins has joined firmus energy as IT Project Manager bringing more than seven years of IT and Business Analysis experience.

Devenish has appointed Alan Gibson as Chief Commercial Officer. Alan brings with him 29 years of experience with leading European food company, Moy Park.

Garvan Doherty has joined Mid Ulster Cars as Manager for their Toyota and Suzuki brands. Having previously worked for a PLC, Garvan has 13 years’ experience with the Toyota brand.

Ian Todd has been appointed Director of Finance & IT at Mount Charles Group. Ian joins Mount Charles with over 12 years’ experience working in Finance and IT across various industry sectors.

Simon Toye has joined Mount Charles Group as Group Development Chef. He has been cooking professionally since 1984 and during his career has worked for some of the most high profile restaurants and hospitality groups.

Bryan Hill has joined Mount Charles Group as Business Development Manager.

Bryan joins Mount Charles with an extensive career in catering sales.

David Phelan has joined Mount Charles Group as Senior Bid Manager. He has 10 years’ bid experience, across a wide range of industries including office supplies, facilities management and consultancy.

Janice Stewart has joined Mount Charles as Group Manager. Janice was promoted to the role in July 2016 after working for Mount Charles for three years.

JANUARY 2017

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Celebrating life, every day, everywhere

DRINK RESPONSIBLY The BAILEYS, GORDON’S, CAPTAIN MORGAN, SMIRNOFF, GUINNESS, SMITHWICKS, CARLSBERG and HARP words and associated logos are trade marks © Diageo 2015.

PHOTOCALL

1. Ulster University has appointed Belfast chef, restaurateur and business owner Niall McKenna as a Visiting Professor for a four-year period. Pictured in the dining room of The Academy, the University’s teaching restaurant are (from L-R): student Callum Irwin, Niall McKenna, and student Laura Henning.

2. Young Professionals from BDO Northern Ireland pictured at the announcement of a new forum aimed at accelerating up-and-coming business talent. The free-to-join group is open to anyone under 37 and designed to foster practical skills and business know-how across a range of disciplines.

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3. Hannah McDaid, Cecil Chapman & Catherine Mallon from Pinsent Masons volunteer with Simon Community NI to freshen up their Belfast Accommodation Project. The firm announced it is extending its corporate partnership with the NI Charity by another year.

3 4. Launching the ENTER programme in East Belfast are James Rees-Hopkins, owner of Redzone Fitness, Jonathan McAlpin, Chief Executive, Ease Belfast Enterprise, Terry McCorran, founder of City of Belfast Boxing Academy, and Colin Mounstephen, Management Consultant at Deloitte.

5. The Gallery, a new multi-million pound development consisting of almost 60 luxurious apartments, has officially opened on Belfast’s Dublin Road. Pictured in one of The Gallery apartments are Brian Shane, Corporate Banking Manager at Danske Bank; Gary McCausland, Chief Executive of the Richland Group and Geoff Sharpe, Senior Manager in Danske’s Corporate Banking team.

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Celebrating life, every day, everywhere

DRINK RESPONSIBLY The BAILEYS, GORDON’S, CAPTAIN MORGAN, SMIRNOFF, GUINNESS, SMITHWICKS, CARLSBERG and HARP words and associated logos are trade marks © Diageo 2015.

PHOTOCALL

6. Alaistair Armstrong (centre) is presented with the Account Manager of the Year Award by Sean Haley, (left) regional chair for Sodexo UK and Ireland and brand ambassador Matt Dawson at the Sodexo Star Awards on Thursday 24th November 2016 in London.

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7. Economy Minister Simon Hamilton MLA has announced US business aPriori Technologies is establishing a 15-strong technology team in Belfast. Pictured at the announcement with the Minister is aPriori President and Chief Executive Officer, Stephanie Feraday.

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8. Dominic O’Neill from First Trust Bank is pictured with John and Niall O’Brien, who have recently expanded their pharmacy practice. Now with two branches – one in Coagh anwd another in Magherafelt – the brothers have made a substantial investment in both locations and backed by the bank.

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9. Digital agency Engage is expanding its reach into the UK, Europe and US market and increasing its workforce by nine, with two strategic hires having already joined the team, with help from Bank of Ireland.

Pictured arre David Ramsey, Business Advisor, Belfast City Branch, Bank of Ireland UK; Steven Cassin, Managing Director, Engage and Gavin Kennedy, Director of Business Banking NI, Bank of Ireland UK.

10. Pictured from left are Jane McClenaghan, ambassador nutritionist at Centra NI; Noel McMeel, ambassador chef, SuperValu NI and Michael McCormack, managing director, Musgrave NI. SuperValu and Centra have launched chat show host Graham Norton’s Own Wine.

JANUARY 2017

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Celebrating life, every day, everywhere

DRINK RESPONSIBLY The BAILEYS, GORDON’S, CAPTAIN MORGAN, SMIRNOFF, GUINNESS, SMITHWICKS, CARLSBERG and HARP words and associated logos are trade marks © Diageo 2015.

PHOTOCALL

11. TinyLife has received a £5,000 Christmas gift from Danske Bank after the bank’s staff, customers and members of the public voted for the local charity.

Pictured from left are Alison Falls, External Relations Manager, Danske Bank, Valerie Cromie, Head of Fundraising and Communications, TinyLife and Daphne Cuthbert, TinyLife volunteer.

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12. Tourism Ireland has launched details of its marketing plans to promote Northern Ireland overseas in 2017.

Pictured are Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland; Joan O’Shaughnessy, Vice Chair of Tourism Ireland; and Brian Ambrose, Chairman of Tourism Ireland.

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13. Beannchor Group is embracing technology thanks to a gigabit private cloud network, delivered and managed by eir Business NI in partnership with Zenith Networks.From left are eir Business NI Sales and Marketing director Matt McCloskey; James Sinton, Finance Director at Beannchor Group; and Andrew McCartney Director at Zenith Networks.

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14. BT, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks, NI Water and Phoenix Natural Gas have been working together regularly over a number of years to identify ways companies could provide mutual support and aid during periods of severe weather. Pictured are Michael McKinstry (Chief Executive, Phoenix), Ronan Larkin (Director, NI Water), Nicholas Tarrant (Managing Director, NIE Networks) and Mairead Meyer (Managing Director, BT).

15. UKEF has added Bank of Ireland to its panel of affiliated lenders for its trade finance support. Pictured are Fred Smyth, Bank of Ireland UK, Gordon Welsh, UK Export Finance, Liz McCrory UK Export Finance, Gavin Kennedy, Bank of Ireland UK and Willie McCoy, Bank of Ireland Global Markets.

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Celebrating life, every day, everywhere

DRINK RESPONSIBLY The BAILEYS, GORDON’S, CAPTAIN MORGAN, SMIRNOFF, GUINNESS, SMITHWICKS, CARLSBERG and HARP words and associated logos are trade marks © Diageo 2015.

PHOTOCALL

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16. Keith Shiells from Lambert Smith Hampton and Trevor Wood of Trevor Wood Associates launch the latest edition of ‘Going Shopping 2017 – The Definitive Guide to Shopping Centres’ at the Merchant Hotel, Belfast.

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17. Belfast One – Belfast City Centre’s Business Improvement District (BID) – has contracted ISL Waste Management to save city centre businesses up to 30% in waste collection costs. Barry Donaghy from ISL Waste Management Ltd is pictured with Julie McCullagh from Belfast One, Danny Paton from ISL Waste Management and Clare Maguire from Belfast One.

18. Over £1.5m is set to be invested by a North Down developer in a new housing scheme in Bangor. ITS Homes has begun construction work at Shamrock Glen off the Gransha Road in an investment supported

by Ulster Bank. Keith Thompson, Ulster Bank business manager, on site with Peter Wallace of ITS Homes.

19. Car dealership Mervyn Stewart is set to open a new Skoda franchise between Bangor and Newtownards in a £2m investment will create an initial 20 jobs and was supported

by Danske Bank. Pictured are Stephen Stewart, Managing Director at Mervyn Stewart; Karen Bickerstaff, General Manager at Mervyn Stewart and Ellen Matthews, Business Banking Manager at Danske Bank.

20. Aaron Lilley one of Northern Ireland’s top bartenders, from The Cardan, Lisburn, is pictured celebrating winning the accolade of the first ever Heverlee L’Apprentice alongside renowned draught master ‘Le Principal’ Michael Stewart and Tennent’s NI’s Paula.

JANUARY 2017

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Celebrating life, every day, everywhere

DRINK RESPONSIBLY The BAILEYS, GORDON’S, CAPTAIN MORGAN, SMIRNOFF, GUINNESS, SMITHWICKS, CARLSBERG and HARP words and associated logos are trade marks © Diageo 2015.

PHOTOCALL

21. Pictured from left are Stephen McAufield, McAufield Family Butchers, with Chief Executive of Butchery Excellence Ireland Rhonda Montgomery and Chef Sean Owens. The World Butchers’ Challenge will take place at IFEX 2018 at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in March.

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22. Economy Minister Simon Hamilton officially opens Novosco’s new world-class offices at Catalyst Inc (formerly the NI Science Park), with Novosco Managing Director, Patrick McAliskey, and Sales Director, John Lennon.

23. Wilsons Auctions Managing Director Ian Wilson and Group Operations Director Peter Johnston are celebrating as the company reaches its 80th Anniversary.

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24. A tree planting ceremony took place recently at The Woodland Walkway in the Clarawood Estate, East Belfast, to mark Abbeyfield Housing Association’s 60th anniversary. Pictured are (l-r) Professor Bob Stout, Abbeyfield Northern Ireland Chairman and Junior Ministers Megan Fearon MLA and Alastair Ross MLA.

25. Translink’s Communication Team and its Communications Agency Morrow Communications have scooped top accolades at the recent CIPR Northern Ireland PRide Awards. Pictured celebrating Translink’s CIPR PRide 2016 Award success are: l-r Annette Small, Mo McCauley, Kieran Donnelly, Chris Conway, Ursula Henderson, Patricia Rogers, Lynda Shannon.

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Hillsborough Castle The magnificent Hillsborough Castle, spectacular and truly unique events hrp.org.uk/hireavenue 0844 482 3415 Calls cost 5p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge

EVENTS

Canapés and cocktails The cream of last month’s business events Enterprise Week takes ABC by storm Businesses across Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough were inspired to innovate, build networks and access support to help them grow and expand during Enterprise Week, a week-long programme of free events organized by the council to coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week in November. With inspirational conferences, funding workshops, digital seminars and mentoring sessions, each event was aimed at cultivating and strengthening the area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in this increasingly challenging

Getting ready to inspire businesses during Enterprise Week were Lord Mayor Garath Keating and Roger Wilson CE of ABC Borough Council at The Palace Desmense along with Enterprise Week partners

Daryl Conway, We are Digital; Niamh Taylor, Digital Twenty Four; Elaine McAlinden, Economic Development Officer, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council and Emma Gribben, We are Digital at the Managing your Business on Mobile Masterclass part of Enterprise Week

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Ciaran Cunningham, Banbridge Enterprise Centre; Martin Lydon, Roscommon County Council; Deputy Lord Mayor Paul Greenfield; Martina Rafter, Roscommon County Council and Seamus Donnelly, Banbridge Enterprise Centre Developing Creative Networks - part of Enterprise Week

EVENTS

Hotel food for thought

Dr Nicholas O’Shiel, Chairman of Enterprise Northern Ireland; Ruth Todd, BDO; Katie Jane Wray, Horse and Hound Physiotherapy; Simon Hamilton, Minister for the Economy

Young Entrepreneur canters to success

Julie McKinstry-Harvey from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in NI congratulates Aaron Duffy from Corick House Hotel & Spa

Hotels from throughout Northern Ireland gathered for the ‘Hotel Restaurant of the Year’ awards dinner at the Four Seasons Suite, Galgorm Resort & Spa last night in November. The competition, organised by the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation (NIHF), is part of the Federation’s celebration of Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink.

A 23-year-old County Antrim woman has won a prestigious business award for her determination to help animals as well as bringing educational opportunities to others in her sector. Katie Jane Wray of Horse and Hound Physiotherapy, Ballyclare was awarded Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Enterprise Northern Ireland Awards.

Building success in Birmingham An impressive 20 local apprentices representing the Built Environment travelled to NEC Birmingham for the WorldSkills UK Show and successfully brought home seven medals. More than 500 talented young people took part in competitions covering 61 different skills over three days.

Pictured is Jemual Chamos Gold medal winner in Bricklaying from South Eastern Regional College with Oliver Farrell CITB GB

Suzanne Wylie pictured with her award

Top award for BCC boss The sixth annual Women in Business Awards saw Suzanne Wylie, chief executive of Belfast City Council, scoop the highly coveted Outstanding Business Woman of the Year Award, sponsored by Alexander Mann Solutions. Thirteen other trophies were handed out on a night of glitz, glamour and high entertainment as more than 400 from the local business community gathered at the Ramada Plaza, Belfast last Thursday evening for what has become the defining event for female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses across Northern Ireland.

Randox hosts its distributor network in Shanghai Global healthcare diagnostics company Randox Laboratories has launched a new market expansion programme in China, to help develop and strengthen business relationships and increase exports. To mark the roll out of the initiative, Randox is hosted a conference in Shanghai for its most recently acquired distributor networks, who will benefit from training on Randox’s latest healthcare technologies, designed to facilitate early and accurate diagnosis to improve patient outcomes.

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TECHNOLOGY

Tech review: Weckler’s gadgets Adrian Weckler tunes in with the latest Roberts’ radio and calls home with the Sony Xperia X ROBERTS STREAM 93I PRICE: £160 RATING: 5 STARS I have a friend who moved to San Francisco and still listens to Joe Duffy’s Liveline radio show live.

She’s not alone. The advent of good-quality internet radios which don’t take an engineer’s degree to set up has opened up an endless choice of world radio in our kitchens and bedrooms. It’s everything from the BBC to Memphis-based bluegrass stations.

Roberts’ Stream 93i, which I’ve been testing, is a great example. It’s a comprehensive FM, DAB and internet radio that also connects directly to Spotify and external audio sources wirelessly or over cable.

The sound quality, for a radio, is excellent, with a three-way speaker system and a bass subwoofer. This can easily hold a large kitchen or a sitting room.

Its design is practical, with rubberised nubbin legs to stop it slipping on a kitchen surface and a silver handle on top that makes it easy to move from spot to spot.

To connect to the radio, you have three main choices: FM, DAB or internet. In practice, I use the Internet option most as I find it quickest to switch between the radio stations I listen to most. In this mode, the box connects to your home Wi-Fi and, from there, gives you the choice of pretty much any Internet-connected radio station in the world (which is most of them).

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Navigation is by country or genre. In the mood for some blues? There are 100 stations for that. Politics? Ditto. It’s an anorak’s dream.

It is supposed to be able to support up to 320kbps, although most of the streams I have experienced have been between 96kbps and 128kpbs. In other words, perfectly decent.

It has a three-inch (non-touch) LCD screen that guides you through controls and shows you what you’re listening to. It’s also handy in giving you extra information (if supported by the station) about what you’re listening to.

If the device has a weakness, it’s that its speaker setup (front and rear) means that if you stand it up against a wall in a kitchen (as people are wont to do), you might miss some of the audio quality.

There’s a remote control that comes with it and it also has a surprising number of connectivity and audio-sourcing options, from a USB playback port to a LAN port.

If you’re looking for a new radio and are prepared to spend a bit more for more flexibility, this is a genuinely good buy. I can’t see myself going back to an older FM radio.

TECHNOLOGY

It has a fingerprint reader at the side of the device. This is actually a brilliant place to put it because one’s thumb rests there far more naturally than on the front (and especially than the back, as many Android phones now choose).

The 4.6-inch screen is one of the brightest I’ve ever seen in a phone this size. This makes it very usable outdoors in sunny conditions.

The Xperia X is really fast in small ways that matter. For instance, switching from portrait to landscape happens almost instantly rather than waiting a full second. One of the reasons is because of its 3GB of Ram and a fast Snapdragon processor.

It comes with 32GB of storage and MicroSD expansion in the same slot as the sim tray.

The phone’s battery life (2,700mAh) is actually pretty decent, at around a day’s use.

Like many new Android models, the Xperia X has ditched the old MicroUSB connection port in favour of a USB C port. This results in faster charging, but it means you won’t have as many backup chargers from old models lying around.

Other design features of note: Sony has put all the controls (power, fingerprint, volume and photo button) on the right side of the frame. I think this is a good move, but sometimes it makes volume control a little tricky.

SONY XPERIA X PRICE: £399 RATING: 4 STARS Is Sony still one of the great phone makers?

I think so; even if its Xperia handsets are starting to look pricey, they still come with some of the best features - in particular, cameras.

A close inspection of the new 4.6-inch Xperia X - which is about the same size as an iPhone 7 - reveals quite a bit of craftsmanship.

It’s plastic, but feels a lot like ceramic, the

JANUARY 2017

material that Apple is reportedly eyeing up as its next high-end feature for the iPhone 8.

The Xperia X’s strongest feature is its excellent 23-megapixel camera. For a phone in this category, it is arguably best in class. Images are sharp and detailed with an excellent colour balance and a new stabilisation update helps avoid blurry photos.

The only criticism I could make is that the photo app isn’t quite as intuitive as other rivals’ models.

The phone has two front-facing speakers that give decent audio (which is an underrated feature in this age of mobile video). Sony has also thrown in hi-res audio into the deal. This isn’t a must-have feature by any means, but audiophiles will appreciate it.

The Xperia X isn’t waterproof like its more expensive siblings. This didn’t bother me.

At this price, the Xperia X is up against some pretty formidable competition, most notably the superb OnePlus 3 (€100 cheaper and a bigger screen) and Apple’s iPhone SE (the same price, but with a smaller screen).

The Xperia arguably beats both these rivals in its camera (although the iPhone SE’s camera is excellent). Otherwise, it has a serious fight on its hands.

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London Calling!

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TRAVEL

Magical Mongolia For centuries, it’s been a byword for the middle of nowhere. That makes Mongolia a magical trip, says David Flanagan.

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or the last eight hours my friend Michael and I have been cycling up a remote valley, following a sandy track that weaves its way through grassy meadows, glades of pine and across the occasional stream.

As we get further up the valley, the track gets narrower and fainter until it disappears completely, leaving us with no option but to haul our heavily loaded bikes up a dry stream bed.

There is no sign of the path that is marked on our map. But that’s not all that’s surprising the map, the most recent one available, dates from 1970. If we can’t find an easier way over the pass we will have to camp here tonight and spend tomorrow retracing our steps.

Eventually, after ditching our bikes and thrashing through the heavy undergrowth, we find a way forward. A hard push up the steep slope brings us to the top of the pass.

A vast wilderness of snowy mountains and forested valleys stretches in every direction.

There isn’t a single road or house. Even for Mongolia, the most sparsely populated country on earth, this is a remote spot.

Outer Mongolia, along with Timbuktu, has long served as a byword for the middle of nowhere. Times are changing - a major new airport is set to open next year, and Lonely Planet lists it as one of the top 10 countries to visit in 2017 - but it’s not exactly the first place to spring to mind when planning a holiday.

However, if you want to experience a unique culture and a pristine, wild and uncrowded landscape, then it should be on your radar.

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Four days ago, Michael and I landed at Chinggis Khaan International Airport just outside Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.

UB, as it’s known, is a fascinating mix of Buddhist temples, Soviet-era concrete buildings and modern skyscrapers, but after two days of sight-seeing we are itching to start our adventure - a 500km cycle around Ghorkhi-Terelj National Park, carrying everything we need on our bikes and camping along the way.

Many times strangers invite us into their gers for delicious homemade cheese and salty milk tea.

Along the way we get a few opportunities to repay this hospitality in kind, helping to push GETTING THERE: It is possible to fly into Ulaanbaatar from Moscow, Istanbul, Seoul and Beijing. If you aren’t in a rush, the best way to get there is by rail on the Trans-Siberian, which takes over four days to travel from Moscow to Mongolia.

See visitmongolia.com, seat61.com and bikepacking.com for more info.

Thirty-day visas are required for Irish visitors to Mongolia.

a truck from the mud and lending our phone so that the driver of a broken down jeep can call for help, for example. And even though we can only communicate with gestures (few Mongolians have any English and our Mongolian is basic, to say the least), it’s amazing how much information it’s possible to exchange using just your hands and the occasional drawing in the dust.

It turns out that crossing the mountain pass is by far the hardest part of our trip. In fact, the majority of the route is actually pretty easy, following good, reasonably flat tracks.

Most days, we cover about 50km, but we aren’t in a rush; we stop frequently to relax and enjoy the views, taking care to select a really nice spot to camp each night.

The vast steppe and network of tracks makes Mongolia one of the world’s best bike touring destinations, but after a week in the wilderness it’s time to make our way back to the city. Our route takes us through Gorkhi, a spectacular valley surrounded by rocky peaks and ridges, at the southern end of the

TRAVEL

New airline from Belfast City Airport to Reykjavik announced

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raditionally focusing on a domestic route network, George Best Belfast City Airport has recently placed a focus on expanding its route network offering both summer sunshine routes and direct services to city break destinations across Europe.

The airport recently announced Iceland as a new destination starting 1st June 2017.

Belfast will become Icelandair‘s 44th scheduled destination with a full year-round service three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays operated by sister airline Air Iceland.

Celebrating the announcement of the new Belfast to Reykjavik route are Ciaran Doherty, Head of Co-operative Marketing, Tourism Ireland, Ellie McGimpsey, Business Development Manager, Belfast City Airport and Anne McMullan, Director of Marketing and Communications, Visit Belfast.

The flight from Belfast to Reykjavik will provide easy connections with Icelandair’s wide network of destinations in the US and Canada including Boston, Toronto and Seattle.

Welcoming the launch of the new route, Katy Best, Commercial and Marketing Director at Belfast City Airport, commented: “Belfast City Airport is delighted to announce our new threetimes weekly flight to Reykjavik, which is a further extension of our growing European route network and a major boost to the Northern Ireland economy.

National Park. Only an hour’s drive on a good road from Ulaanbaatar, it’s very popular with city residents at weekends as well as with travellers on a brief stopover in Mongolia.

There is plenty of accommodation in the valley, mostly ger camps and even a few hotels, so we treat ourselves to a night in a ger equipped with comfortable beds and a wood-burning stove.

That evening we climb the steps up to the Aryabal Buddhist Meditation Centre, a beautiful monastery nestled high up at the head of the valley. It’s a very peaceful place to relax and take in the magnificent view across the mountains.

Even through we are dog tired and profoundly hungry, it’s with heavy hearts that we pack up for the last time and ride back into the city. The busy road is a shock to the system, a sharp contrast to the quiet meadows, forests and valleys that we have spent the last 10 days exploring. But the thought of a warm shower and a soft bed drive us on, back to civilisation. ■

JANUARY 2017

“Icelandair has a proven international pedigree and our partnership with the airline for this new service will be a hugely welcome addition to the local market for business and leisure passengers.

“With a fantastic range of cultural events, activities and historical sites, the Icelandic capital is an increasingly popular tourist destination, while the route offers passengers an extremely convenient connection to a host of destinations such as Boston, Toronto and Seattle in the USA and Canada.”

Northern Ireland Economy Minister, Simon Hamilton MLA, said: “I welcome the hard work and commitment of George Best Belfast City Airport to develop routes like this one which will contribute to our efforts to make global connections as we create a competitive economy.

“This new route to Iceland, which will open up connections to North America, is another important step as we continue to build our air connectivity so that it is as easy as possible for people all over the world to access Northern Ireland for both business and tourism purposes.”

The focus on building a broader route network has certainly paid off, with Belfast City Airport smashing its annual international passenger record almost four months before the end of the year in 2016. The end of August saw the airport beat the previous annual high of 171,270, set in 2015, with the 2016 figure climbing to 200,977. By November, the figure was up to 256,146.

Katy Best continued: “Reaching a milestone of over 200,000 international passengers almost four months before the end of the year gives evidence of the public demand for flights to key European destinations in Northern Ireland, and provides a major boost for Northern Ireland tourism.” ■

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Food Served Daily

MY DAY Uncovering the 9-5 6:00am After the alarm goes off, I have breakfast with the kids before leaving the house at around 7:30am for the school run and then head straight to the office.

8:00am Arriving at the office, I start my day by checking following up on emails from the night before.

Connect Telecom provides landline, mobile, broadband, email, cloud and IT services to more than 5,000 business customers across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the UK, and we place a very firm focus on customer service so there is always a lot of communication to keep on top of.

9:00am I make sure to read up on all daily and industry news at the start of the day. I catch up with Matthew Brown, founder and Director at Connect Telecom, as early as I can to review the day ahead and plan any meetings we may have together. We then lead internal meetings with our team managers to see what the day’s priorities are and set targets. At Connect Telecom, we are very open – with our staff and with our customers. Our internal structure sees a lot of crossover for our teams meaning all staff are aware of what’s going on in each department.

11:00am With an office based on the Lisburn Road, our doors are always open for customers, or potential customers, to walk in and discuss their telecoms and communications needs. I regularly meet with customers in the office and discuss the best ways our team can help their business.

Connect Telecom is Northern Ireland’s only Vodafone Platinum Partner and one of only a handful within the UK so we regularly have meetings and conference calls with Vodafone to relay feedback from our customers and suggestions as to how working closely together can deliver an even better service for our customers.

In the last year alone we have grown our number of customers and connections by more than 50%, and we are now one of the first Vodafone partners in the UK authorised to install One Net Business, and the first in Northern Ireland. Being authorised to install One Net Business means we are now a one-

Name: Scott Ritchie Position: Director at Connect Telecom stop-shop managing the entire process for new and existing business customers on the Vodafone network across fixed lines, mobiles or broadband which significantly speeds the process up.

1:00pm Matthew and I regularly meet with clients or potential clients for lunch to review their communications needs and discuss how our services working with partners such as Vodafone, Cisco and Microsoft can support their business.

At present, businesses are keen to explore communications methods which provide staff with greater flexibility to work just as easily remotely as from the office, and across a number of devices.

Vodafone One Net Business, which is a hosted Voice over IP (VoIP) technology solution that brings your mobile, IP desk phones and fixed lines together in a single hosted system, is an extremely popular choice at present and our One Net customers are seeing savings of around 25%.

2:00pm We recently announced a £250k investment to establish a permanent presence in the North West creating up to ten jobs over the next two years, so at present I am working very closely with the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.

We’ve had a significant proportion of growth in the North West, so will be opening the local office in 2017 to service both existing and new clients with fixed phone lines and mobiles, broadband, email, data storage and other IT solutions.

4:00-5:00pm At the end of the day I like to review the outcomes and learnings of the day by facilitating a brainstorm session.

This may be around topics for the monthly thought leadership column I write for the Belfast Telegraph, general strategy for the business or initiatives and feedback on how we could further improve our offering to customers.

The aim of our business is ultimately to provide products and services that make the lives of our customers easier and support their businesses.

This is why we keep the customer central to everything we do and really listen to their needs.

Technology and communications are constantly evolving and we like to stay one step ahead of the game and the competition. It is therefore important that myself, Matt and the entire team remain acutely aware of the industry trends and challenges.

I try to leave the office at around 5pm so as I can get home and enjoy dinner with my family and discuss the day.

Developing Managers Programme Are you ready for tomorrow’s working world?

Are you a manager who wants an academic management qualification? Or looking to develop your existing skills?

• Apply new skills straight away to add value to your business • Intensive, challenging and impactful • Practically orientated, 12 month programme • Improve personal effectiveness and impact your organisation, your community and the economy Our practical and highly acclaimed programme has been refreshed to address the opportunities and challenges presented by an ever-changing business environment.

Programme cost The cost is £2,450 and includes residential induction, regional study visit, all module activities and award fees. A payment schedule is available to assist financial planning.

A limited number of £500 bursaries are available with the support of Flybe.

Further information Please contact Janice Wright, E: jl.wright@ulster.ac.uk T: 028 9036 8070 W: ulster.ac.uk/business/business-institute/programmes

“I have not only enjoyed the Developing Managers course this year but I have grown as a leader within my business.”

Eileen Moore Asda